For many manufacturers, hybridization represents an attractive solution for reducing the energy consumption of their vehicles. However, electrification offers a wide range of possibilities for implementing powertrain concepts. The concepts can differ regarding their mechanical complexity and the required power of the electrical machines. In this article, drive concepts that differ in their functionality and drive train topology are compared. Based on requirements for the C, D, and E segment, the mechanical and electrical effort of the concepts is analyzed. The results show that the mechanical effort in the C segment can be reduced as long as the electrical effort is increased. In case of higher vehicle segments, the electrical effort can increase considerably, making concepts with increased mechanical complexity more suitable. The driving performance and efficiency in hybrid operation are evaluated via simulation. The results show that the difference of acceleration times in hybrid operation between a charged and discharged battery is lower for mechanically complex concepts. At the same time, they achieve lower CO2 emissions. Therefore, these concepts represent a better compromise regarding performance and efficiency. Despite lower transmission efficiencies in hybrid operation, they achieve conversion qualities similar to simpler concepts and lower emissions with lower electrical effort.
A novel optimization technique for optimizing the damper top mount characteristics to improve vehicle ride comfort and harshness is developed. The proposed optimization technique employs a new combined objective function based on ride comfort, harshness, and impact harshness evaluation. A detailed and accurate damper top mount mathematical model is implemented inside a validated quarter vehicle model to provide a realistic simulation environment for the optimization study. The ride comfort and harshness of the quarter vehicle are evaluated by analyzing the body acceleration in different frequency ranges. In addition, the top mount deformation is considered as a penalty factor for the system performance. The influence of the ride comfort and harshness weighting parameters of the proposed objective function on the optimal damper top mount characteristics is studied. The dynamic stiffness of the damper top mount is used to describe the optimum damper top mount characteristics for different optimization case studies. The proposed optimization routine is able to find the optimum characteristics of the damper top mount which improve the ride comfort and the harshness performances together.
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