Power Management Strategy for the 48 V Mild Hybrid Electric Vehicle Based on the Charge-Sustaining Control

Abstract

To enhance the 48 V mild hybrid electric vehicle performance using a smaller capacity and lower voltage battery than the full hybrid electric vehicle, a novel power management strategy needs to be established that considers the characteristics and limitations of the components. This paper proposes a charge-sustaining control strategy as a ground principle of the 48 V hybrid electric vehicle control for managing the battery state-of-charge (SOC) to stay near the most efficient regime. The base efficiency characteristics of the component models including engine, motor/generator, and battery are determined in the form of efficiency maps using the powertrain analysis tool. Then the control strategy is formulated as a nonlinear optimal regulation problem that meets two conflicting control objectives, such as fuel efficiency improvement and state-of-charge maintenance. The optimal regulation problem implements a discrete-time Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman approach. The proposed strategy is evaluated by comparing with the reference strategy applying the Dynamic Programming (DP), i.e. a global optimal result, under urban dynamometer driving schedule and worldwide harmonized light duty test cycle. Through the evaluation, the fuel efficiency of the proposed strategy with three different electrical loads is slightly deteriorated at most by 5.03 % from the DP results with staying within a desirable SOC. This suggests that the proposed strategy is operating very closely to global optimal performances.