Simulation investigation of tractive energy conservation for a cornering rear-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicle through torque vectoring

Abstract

Although electric vehicle fully exhibits its comparative merits of energy conservation and environmental friendliness, further improvement of its traction energy efficiency lacks comprehensive investigations in the past. In this paper, the effect of the torque vectoring on traction energy conservation during cornering for a rear-wheel-independent-drive electric vehicle is investigated. Firstly, turning resistance coefficient and energy conservation mechanism of torque vectoring are derived from the single track dynamic model. Next, an optimal torque vectoring control strategy based on genetic algorithm is proposed, with the consideration of the influence of the operation-point change of the in-wheel motors, to find out the best torque vectoring ratio offline. Finally, various simulation tests are conducted to validate the energy conservation effect after Simulink modelling. The results verify that though the optimization of the operating region of the motors is the main part for tractive energy conservation, the contribution of torque vectoring itself can reach up to 1.7% in some typical cases.