A computational study of the impacts of driving aggressiveness on fuel consumption sensitivity in a parallel HEV

Paper in proceeding, 2017

Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) have an advantage over their conventional counterparts in terms of reducing fuel consumption and meeting increasingly stringent emission reduction criteria. Nonetheless, the variation in fuel consumption due to differences in driving style and behaviour under real-world driving conditions is greater in HEVs than in the conventional ones. A reduction in variability of fuel consumption is hence of compelling relevance for design and optimization of HEVs. This work employs vehicle powertrain simulations to analyze the effects of driving style on fuel consumption sensitivity in parallel HEVs for a range of traffic conditions. The driving aggressiveness is modeled using velocity-scaling and acceleration-scaling methods, respectively, to account for various velocity characteristics and acceleration levels. Hybrid powertrain simulations assess and quantify the impacts of the engine performance, as well as the significance of the energy recovered by regenerative braking. The results presented in this paper provide valuable inputs for optimal control of HEVs to meet customer driving needs and expectations.