Reducing Air Pollutant Emissions and Optimizing Fuel Economy by Controlling Torque and Catalyst warm-up in mild HEV via Cascaded MPC

Abstract

In this paper, Cascaded MPC (Model Predictive Control) including Supervisory MPC, Heating MPC and Torque MPC is applied to mild HEVs (Hybrid Electric Vehicles) in order to improve fuel economy and reduce NOx emissions. There is a difference in the timescale between Heaitng MPC and Torque MPC, which are connected via the battery. Supervisory MPC treats the power and temperature systems comprehensively and calculates reference values for NOx emissions to be tracked in Heating MPC. In Heating MPC, the optimal amount of heating from the battery to the catalyst in the exhaust gas after-treatment system is determined. The amount of heating must be determined in a way that the catalyst can optimally purify NOx emitted from the engine. At Torque MPC, the optimal torque distribution for the engine and motor is determined. Finally, the effectiveness of our proposed method is demonstrated by simulations.