Optimal Energy Management and Sizing of a Dual Motor-Driven Electric Powertrain

Abstract

This paper is concerned with combined power-source sizing and energy management optimization for multi-motor-driven electric powertrains. Existing studies focus mostly on adopting heuristically determined battery and motor sizes for such powertrains, without a sufficient exploration of the coupling between power-source dimension and energy management strategy. To address this research gap, this paper aims at presenting an alternative, convex programming based method to optimize the multi-power-source integration problem, for vehicular economy maximization. Specifically, for the first time, we leverage this method to optimize an electric bus powertrain configuration with front-and-rear-axle dual motors and a clutch, as a case study. Numerous analysis results, as well as comparisons with common design/control practice, demonstrate the effectiveness and computational benefit of the proposed scheme.