An ECMS-Based Approach for the Energy Management of a Vehicle Electrical System

This paper proposes a supervisory energy management strategy for the vehicle electrical system of a passenger car. The objective is to control the alternator duty cycle to optimize the vehicle fuel economy while meeting the instantaneous load current demand and satisfying constraints on the system voltage and battery state of charge.The approach taken here is based on the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS). To this extent, a control-oriented model was developed to predict the behavior of the vehicle electrical system. The ECMS was then formulated and calibrated for various drive cycles and electrical load current profiles. Simulation results compare the performance and fuel consumption to a baseline control strategy (Voltage Regulation).