Current market needs call for smart vehicles, often implementing advanced technologies, leading to the incorporation of additional electronic components and systems, which in turn often lead to an increase of vehicle mass. With the ever increasing focus on the state of the world climate; the demand for more environmentally friendly technologies has never been greater. As part of the response a £29 million project partially funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM), and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is currently taking place. The project includes both academic partners such as Coventry University and Warwick University, in addition to industrial partners such as MIRA Ltd., Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence upon the Body In White (BIW) mass by variation of the Centre of Mass (CM) of two key components needed for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV); an electric motor and an alternator. The problem will be approached by means of a topology optimisation study, incorporating equivalent NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) dynamic impact loading conditions, to develop the structural loadpaths, while incorporating the aforementioned HEV components. Based upon the results of the topology optimisation studies discussed in this paper, it was apparent that the introduction of the electric motor and the alternator led to an increase in BIW mass. Part of this increase could be reclaimed by setting structural performance requirements for the added components. Thereby a reduction in the BIW mass is possible. However, specifying structural performance requirements for these components may have far reaching consequences. These could include, but are not limited to: (1) Sensitivity / durability of the electrical systems within the components Trade off between added mass of the components versus added BIW mass. (2) Manufacturing costs. (3) Serviceability and reparability. (4) Fatigue. Regardless of the potential issues listed above, the conclusion of this study must be that the incorporation of additional components such as the electric motor and the alternator are likely to have a significant influence on the BIW topology, when designing a lightweight vehicle. In order to successfully design a truly lightweight vehicle the potential for exploiting the structural integrity of the necessary components such as the electric motor is likely to provide opportunities of significantly reducing the BIW mass.
Integration of electric motor and alternator in smart lightweight vehicles
Integration des Elektromotors und Generators in intelligente Leichtbaufahrzeuge
2011
8 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 10 Quellen
(nicht paginiert)
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
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