Automotive fuel economy improvement by micro hybridization
Résumé
Automotive transportation is responsible for a large share of oil consumption and emission. Several approaches have been investigated to improve automotive fuel economy. Mild hybrid vehicles are by a conventional car equipped with a single electric machine (~10kW) that replaces both the starter and the generator. To reduce the system cost, the energy storage system has usually a small capacity. As a result, these vehicles are quite affordable and allow significant fuel consumption reduction, in particular during urban driving. The CISIT (Internation Campus on Safety and Intermodality in Transportation) is a project funded by the French region Nord Pas de Calais and the FEDER. The overall project objective is to develop intelligent, reliable and clean vehicles and transportation systems from basic research up to industrial innovation. Within CISIT, collaboration between VALEO, the Unversity of Valencienneset du Hainaut Cambresis lead to the development of a micro hybrid vehicle. Two generation of hybridization systems have been tested and assessed. This project was a win to win collaboration between an industrial partner and a university laboratory. In particular, based latest research results, new control laws were developed to improve the vehicle fuel economy.