Fuel Minimization of the Electric Engine Cooling System With Active Grille Shutter by Iterative Quadratic Programming

Abstract

The electric engine cooling system with the active grille shutter requires intelligent and predictive control to reach its full benefits on fuel economy and thermal management. Conventional control methods regulate the coolant temperature to a fixed value but do not directly minimize the vehicle's fuel/energy consumption. By contrast, we design a fuel minimization controller through solving constraint nonlinear optimization problems, whose cost function is the total fuel consumption and constraints are the vehicle's physical limits. To achieve high computational efficiency and sufficient accuracy, the optimization problem is solved by iterative convex quadratic programming and quasilinearization. The advantages of the proposed control method on both fuel economy and engine thermal management are demonstrated by simulations.

Design and Analysis of a Permanent Magnet Brushless DC Motor in an Automotive Cooling System

“…In an automotive cooling system, the fan is a crucial component. In conventional fuel-powered vehicles, the fan is mechanically driven by a belt connected to the engine crankshaft [15], resulting in limited speed control and inadequate energy efficiency [16]. In contrast, cooling fans in electric vehicles are driven directly by the electric motor, which provides better control and energy efficiency, reduces auxiliary energy consumption, and enables better thermal management of the drive motor [17].…”

Simulation of bypass electric water pump to reduce the engine warm-up time

“…There are several designs have been developed in the automotive cooling system to improve engine thermal efficiency. Basically, these designs use controllable actuators and mechatronic components such as electric water pump, controllable thermostat, and controllable electric fan to improve engine temperature control on most operating ranges [12][13][14][15][16]. Overall, the design would be more complex but there are pros and cons on these designs.…”