See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/267254734

Design, Modeling and Simulation of an Electric Vehicle System

Article · March 1999

DOI: 10.4271/1999-01-1149

CITATIONS READS
82 16,745

2 authors:

I. Husain Mohammad S. Islam

North Carolina State University 60 PUBLICATIONS 1,845 CITATIONS
386 PUBLICATIONS 10,885 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Mohammad S. Islam on 11 November 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

SAE TECHNICAL
PAPER SERIES 1999-01-1149

Design, Modeling and Simulation of an

Electric Vehicle System
Iqbal Husain and Mohammad S. Islam
The University of Akron

Reprinted From: Advances in Electric Vehicle Technology

(SP-1417)

International Congress and Exposition

Detroit, Michigan
March 1-4, 1999

400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA 15096-0001 U.S.A. Tel: (724) 776-4841 Fax: (724) 776-5760
The appearance of this ISSN code at the bottom of this page indicates SAE’s consent that copies of the
paper may be made for personal or internal use of specific clients. This consent is given on the condition,
however, that the copier pay a $7.00 per article copy fee through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
Operations Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 for copying beyond that permitted by Sec-
tions 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying such as
copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works,
or for resale.

SAE routinely stocks printed papers for a period of three years following date of publication. Direct your
orders to SAE Customer Sales and Satisfaction Department.

Quantity reprint rates can be obtained from the Customer Sales and Satisfaction Department.

To request permission to reprint a technical paper or permission to use copyrighted SAE publications in
other works, contact the SAE Publications Group.

All SAE papers, standards, and selected

books are abstracted and indexed in the
Global Mobility Database

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

ISSN 0148-7191
Copyright 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.

Positions and opinions advanced in this paper are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of SAE. The author is solely
responsible for the content of the paper. A process is available by which discussions will be printed with the paper if it is published in
SAE Transactions. For permission to publish this paper in full or in part, contact the SAE Publications Group.

Persons wishing to submit papers to be considered for presentation or publication through SAE should send the manuscript or a 300
word abstract of a proposed manuscript to: Secretary, Engineering Meetings Board, SAE.

Printed in USA

Design, Modeling and Simulation of an Electric Vehicle System
Copyright © 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc.
ABSTRACT
The switched reluctance motor is a strong candidate for
electric/hybrid vehicle applications primarily because of
its high power density, good efficiency and high-speed
capability. The motor drive for an EV is desired to have a
wide speed range capability to eliminate the gears. A 4:1
speed range of the motor in the constant power region
results in good performance of the system.
The paper will report the design of an electric vehicle sys-
tem using a switched reluctance motor drive. A system
level simulation tool for electric vehicles using the Matlab-
Simulink platform will also be presented. The paper will
discuss the analytical and simulation models for each of
the key system components of an EV, which are the
motor, controller, battery and the drivetrain.
INTRODUCTION
Environmental and economical issues are the major driv-
ing force in developing electric vehicles for urban trans-
portation. The exhaust emissions of the conventional
internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is the major
source of urban pollution that causes the greenhouse
effect leading to global warming [1]. The pollution prob-
lem is only going to worsen with the increasing number of
automobiles being introduced on the road every year.
Statistics show that the number of automobiles in our
planet will increase from half a billion to more than a bil-
lion from 1992 to year 2000. There is also an economic
factor that is inherent in the poor energy conversion effi-
ciency of the combustion engines. Although, when effi-
ciency is evaluated on the basis of conversion from crude
oil to tractive effort at the wheels, the numbers for electric
vehicles are not significantly higher, it does make a differ-
ence. Moreover, efficient power generation at localized
plants together with very high motor and controller effi-
ciency and advancements in battery or power source
technology within the vehicle, the electric vehicles show
immense promise in further overall efficiency improve-
ment. Electric vehicle is the only alternative for a clean,
efficient, and environmentally friendly urban transporta-
tion system.
The electric vehicles paved their way into the world as
early as in the middle of the 19th century, even before the
1
1999-01-1149
Iqbal Husain and Mohammad S. Islam
The University of Akron
introduction of gasoline powered vehicles. In 1900, 4200
automobiles were sold out of which 40% were steam
powered, 38% were electric powered and 22% were gas-
oline powered. However, the invention of starter motor,
improvements in mass production technology of gas-
powered vehicles and inconvenience in battery charging
led to the disappearance of electric vehicles in the early
1900's. However, environmental issues and reducing the
dependence on oil led to the resurgence of interest in
EV's in the 1960's. The demand for investing in R&D for
EV's is ever increasing in 1990's with the major automo-
bile manufacturers embarking in plans for introducing
their own electric or hybrid/electric vehicles.
This paper presents a modeling and simulation tool
based on Matlab/Simulink for electric vehicles with
emphasis on the propulsion unit. The efficiency of the
motor and controller unit of an electric vehicle can make
a significant contribution in enhancing the overall effi-
ciency of electric vehicles over ICE vehicles. A switched
reluctance machine (SRM) has been selected as the pro-
pulsion unit in this project, because of its high power den-
sity and excellent motor-load torque-speed matching
characteristics. The advantages of SRMs over other
machines will be further discussed in the motor design
section. The details of motor, controller and electric vehi-
cle modeling will be presented in the modeling and simu-
lation sections. The developed simulation program will
serve as an evaluation tool for SRM based EV designs.
Different designs can be analyzed fairly quickly using the
methods presented in this paper.
The objective of this paper is to present the fundamentals
of electric vehicles so that one can easily understand the
design criterion, procedure and principles of operation.
This will serve the education aspects on electric vehicle,
which is very important in arousing the interest among
people for developing and using electric vehicles.
EV SYSTEM AND LOAD
A. COMPONENTS OF AN EV – The major components
of an electric vehicle system are motor, controller, power
source, charger and drivetrain. The block diagram of an
electric vehicle system is shown in Fig. 1. Lead/acid bat-
teries are typically used as the power source for electric
vehicles, although other promising battery technologies
are emerging in the horizon. A model for lead/acid batter- B. ROAD LOAD AND TRACTIVE FORCE – The road
ies has been developed and added in the simulation pro- load consists of the gravitational force, rolling resistance
gram. A microprocessor-based controller is used for of the tires and the aerodynamic drag force.
vehicle and motor control. Control complications are to
be minimized as much as possible to avoid disastrous FRL = FgxT + Froll + FAD (1)
failures at this early stage of EV development. Insulated
gate bipolar transistors with ratings as high as 600A and where xT is the tangential direction along the roadway.
1200V are the power devices of choice for the power The tractive force FTR provided by the main propulsion
electronic converter. unit of the vehicle must overcome the road load FRL to
propel the vehicle forward at a desired velocity. The
User inputs forces acting on the vehicle are shown in Fig. 3.
T T
Froad FTR
Accel. Brake Batteries Battery
pedal pedal (Source) Charger yT xT
FAD
Accel Froll Roadway
Electronic Power Motor E
Controller Electronics Regen
FgxT
Software
Classical Hardware Devices Topology Design Types FgyT
Controls Micro- SCR DC/DC Finite DC mg
Modern controller GTO DC/AC Elements Induction
Controls Micro- BJT PWM CAD PM
processor MOSFET Resonant Materials Brushless Figure 3. Forces acting on a vehicle.
Fuzzy
Logic Digital IGBT Soft- Packaging SRM
Neural Signal MCT switched Mechani- Synch.
Network Processor cal Reluctanc Instantaneous
h l
center of rotation
Figure 1. Major electrical components of an electric
vehicle system.
mg
Wheel

Froll
Motor Transmission Differential
-mg

Wheel Figure 4. Rolling resistance force of wheels.

Figure 2. Drivetrain of an electric vehicle.
The majority of electric vehicles developed so far are
based on dc machines, induction machines or permanent
magnet machines. The disadvantages of dc machines
turned EV developers to look into various types of ac
machines. The maintenance-free low-cost induction
machines became an attractive alternative to many
developers. However, high-speed operation of induction
machines is only possible with a penalty in size and
weight. The power density of permanent magnet
machines together with the high cost of permanent mag-
nets make these machines less attractive for EV applica-
tions. The high power density and potentially low
production cost of SRMs make it ideally suitable for EV
applications. However, the controller and motor must be
designed appropriately to eliminate or minimize the dis-
advantages of SRMs, which include torque-ripple and
acoustic noise.
The gravitational force depends on the slope of the road-
way. The force is positive when climbing a grade and is
negative when descending a downgrade slope.
FgxT = mg sin β (2)
where m is the total mass of the vehicle, g is the gravita-
tional acceleration constant and β is the grade angle with
respect to the horizon.
The rolling resistance is produced by the flattening of the
tire at the contact surface of the roadway. The road reac-
tion force Froad now balances the vertical component at
the instantaneous center of rotation on the wheel. The
rolling resistance force is the component force of the ver-
tical load mg, which is tangential to the roadway as
shown in Fig. 4. The tractive force FTR must overcome
tangential force Froll along with the gravitational force and
the aerodynamic drag force. The rolling resistance can
be minimized by keeping the tires as much inflated as
possible. The ratio of the retarding force and the vertical
load on the wheel is known as the coefficient of rolling
resistance C0. The rolling resistance force is given by

2
 sgn[v ]mg (C + C v xT 2 ) if v ≠ 0
 xT 0 1 xT
Froll = ( FgxT + FTR ) if v xT = 0 and FgxT + FTR ≤ C 0 mg

sgn[ FgxT + FTR ](C 0 mg ) if v xT = 0 and FgxT + FTR > C 0 mg
Typically 0.004<C0<.02 (unitless) and C1<<C0 (sec2/m2).
C0mg is the maximum rolling resistance at standstill.
The aerodynamic drag force is the viscous resistance of
the air working against the motion of the vehicle. The
force is given by
FAD = sgn[v xT ]{0.5 pCD AF (v xT + v0 ) 2 }
where p is the air density in kgm/m3 , CD is the aerody-
namic drag coefficient (dimensionless and typically
0.2<CD<0.4), AF is the equivalent frontal area of the vehi-
cle and v0 is the head-wind velocity.
The tractive force in an electric vehicle is supplied by the
electric motor in overcoming the road load. The equation
of motion is given by
dv xT
km m = FTR − FRL
dt
where km is the rotational inertia coefficient to compen-
sate for the apparent increase in the vehicle's mass due
to the onboard rotating mass. Typical value of km is
dv XT
between 1.08 and 1.1 (dimensionless). is the accel-
dt
eration of the vehicle.
C. MOTOR RATING AND TRANSMISSION – The desired
power rating of the electric motor can be calculated from
the above equations based on the system constraints of
initial acceleration, vehicle rated velocity and vehicle
maximum velocity. Further discussions on the calculation
of the motor power rating can be obtained from [1].
The desired torque at the wheels of the vehicle can be
obtained from the power relation
Power = TTR ⋅ ω wh = FTR ⋅ v xT
where TTR is the tractive torque in N-m and ωwh is the
angular velocity of the wheel in rads/sec. FTR is in N and
vxT is in m/sec. The angular velocity and the vehicle
speed is related by
v xT = ω wh ⋅ rwh
where rwh is the radius of the wheel in meters.
A big advantage of an electrically driven propulsion sys-
tem is the elimination of multiple gears to match the vehi-
cle speed and the engine speed. The wide speed range
operation of electric motors enabled by power electronics
control makes it possible to use a single gear ratio trans-
mission for instantaneous matching of the available motor
torque Tmotor with the desired tractive torque TTR. The
gear ratio and the size depend on the maximum motor
speed, the maximum vehicle speed and the wheel radius.
A higher motor speed relative to the vehicle speed means
a higher gear ratio, larger size and higher cost. Higher
(3)
motor speed is also desired in order to increase the
power density of the motor. Therefore, a compromise is
necessary between the maximum motor speed and the
gear ratio to optimize the cost. Planetary gears are typi-
cally used for electric vehicles with the gear ratio rarely
exceeding 10.
MOTOR DESIGN
(4) The electric motor of the vehicle must overcome the road
load, which is established by the vehicle mass, roadway
gradient, rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag coeffi-
cients and vehicle velocity and acceleration. The motor is
desired to have a high starting torque for initial accelera-
tion, high power density and high efficiency to extend the
battery range and a wide operating speed range to facili-
tate single gear transmission. The torque-speed profile of
an electric motor has three regions; constant torque, con-
stant power and natural characteristics regions. The con-
stant torque region extends up to the rated or base speed
(5)
of the motor when the rated power condition of the motor
is reached. The constant power region is the field-weak-
ening region that helps extend the operating speed of the
motor beyond its rated speed. The motor fails to maintain
the rated power beyond this region and the speed drops
according to the natural characteristics of the motor. It
has also been shown in [2] that the motor power and size
is minimized for an electric vehicle application when the
constant power region of the motor is extended. Ideally,
eliminating the constant torque region would provide the
minimum power rating of the motor, but this is not physi-
cally realizable. Therefore, the design objective would be
to minimize the constant torque region and extending the
constant power region. A good efficiency in the field-
weakening region is of extreme importance in electric
vehicles.
The motor rated power reduces drastically if the constant
power range is extended from 1:1 to 1:4. The power con-
(6) tinues to decrease beyond 1:4 range, but not significantly,
and the increase in transmission gear size and cost
would outweigh the reduction in motor size. 1:4 constant
power range is a good choice for a typical passenger
vehicle with a maximum motor speed of 10,000 r/min and
maximum vehicle speed of 44.7 m/s (100mph), although
the optimum ratio would depend on the system variables
(7) and constants.
The type of motors that enable field weakening would be
ideally suitable for traction applications. DC motor torque-
speed characteristics and their field weakening capability
matches the electric vehicle load characteristics very
well. However, the size penalty and the brush and com-
mutator problems render the dc machines unsuitable for
such applications. The current trend is to use induction
machines or brushless PM machines as the propulsion
unit of EVs. The rapidly decaying linear region of the
torque speed profile of induction machines beyond the
breakdown torque limits the constant power region to 1.5
3
to 2.5 times the rated speed for conventional designs. In Torque vs. Po siti on a t C ons tant Currents
order to reach four times the rated speed in the field 500

weakening region at rated power, the overall machine

power rating must be increased roughly by a factor of 2 400

[3]. Brushless permanent magnet machines have excel-

lent efficiencies and high power density, but the perma- 300

Torque in N-m
nent field in these machines significantly reduces the
field weakening capability. Operation with field- 200

weakening is possible in PM machines by deviating from

the maximum torque-per-ampere trajectory [4]. A 1:2.5 100

constant power range has been demonstrated with PM

machines, but at the expense of using high-energy mag- 0

nets [5]. This limited constant power range will increase

the size and cost of PM machines for traction applica- -100
-45 -40 -35 -30 -25 -2 0 -15 -1 0 -5 0
tions. Furthermore, the high-cost of rare-earth magnets Ro tor po siti on i n m echanic al degree s

and the temperature sensitivity continue to be issues for

PM machines.
The torque-speed characteristics of SRMs also match
very well with the EV load characteristics. The SRM has
high speed operation capability with a wide constant
power region. The motor has high starting torque and
high torque-inertia ratio. The rotor structure is extremely
simple without any windings, magnets, commutators or
brushes. The rotors are usually made of steel laminations
to minimize the core losses. The power density of the
machine is also high. The fault-tolerance of the machine
is also extremely good. A 1:4 or 1:5 constant power
region is also achievable with good design and appropri-
ate control.
A wide choice of pole configurations and phase numbers
are possible with SRMs. Lower number of phases
reduces the converter cost, but increases the torque rip-
ple. A higher pole count will be able to utilize thinner sta-
tor and rotor yokes, reducing the weight of the machine.
But a higher pole machine requires a narrower air gap for
the same performance, which is a disadvantage. The ori-
gin of acoustic noise in SRMs are the radial forces which
increases inversely with the airgap. However, a higher
pole machine can operate with smaller rotor pole heights
which is a disadvantage. Higher pole machines operate
at higher electrical frequencies at the same mechanical
speed, which will increase the frequency dependent
losses. With all the above observations, one would con-
sider three-phase and four-phase configurations for EV
applications. Three-phase machines have the inherent
problem of torque dips that will invariably cause higher
torque ripples at low speeds compared to four-phase
machines. Torque ripples cannot be eliminated at higher
speeds for any type of SRMs. However, four-phase
machines would have a lower power density and higher
converter cost. Five phase machines can also be consid-
ered, but the converter cost would be even higher and the
power density would be lower. Also, the losses would be
higher. Space restrictions limit the discussion on design
details of SRMs. Some guidelines about the design of an
SRM can be obtained in [6,7].
Figure 5. Torque-angle-current characteristics of the
designed SRM.
A 60kW three-phase SRM with 6 stator poles and 4 rotor
pole has been designed with the following design con-
straints:
• 0 -26.8 m/s(0-60mph) in 10 secs.
• Maximum vehicle speed is 44.7 m/s (100mph).
• Maximum motor speed is 10,000 rpm.
• Vehicle mass is 1000kg.
• Rolling resistance coefficients are C 0=.009;
C1=1.7E-6.
• Aerodynamic drag coefficient is CD=.2.
• Vehicle frontal area is AF =2m2 (typical for a passen-
ger car).
• Level ground and zero head wind velocity is assumed
• Rotational inertia coefficient is km=1.1
• Transmission gear ratio is 10
• Wheel radius rwh=.28m.
The 60kW machine has a rated speed of 2000rpm and a
1:4 constant power region. The design point for the SRM
has been taken to be the rated speed or base speed.
This point is the minimum motor speed at which rated
power is to be delivered, i.e., it is the beginning of the
constant power region. The machine is designed so that
the back-EMF is equal to the dc bus at the rated speed.
The dimensions of the motor designed are given below:
• Number of turns per pole = 30.
• Rotor pole width =31 degrees.
• Number of pole windings in series =2.
• Number of pole windings in parallel =1.
• Peak current limit=400Amps.
• Stack length =4.26 in.
• Airgap = .01 in.
• Radius to the airgap at the rotor=3.895in.
• Radius to the outside rotor yoke=2.42 in.

4
 • Radius to the inside stator yoke=4.845in.
• Stacking factor=0.9.
• Stator phase winding resistance=0.0042 ohms.
• Relative permeability of magnetic material=3300.
• Saturation flux density=1.9Tesla.
The estimated weight of the machine is 118Lbs.
SRM CONTROLLER DESIGN
The driver input to the vehicle controller is the speed
command, which is translated into a torque command for
motor controller. The torque command in conjunction with
the motor running speed sets up the control parameters
for the electric motor. The control parameters for
switched reluctance machine are the turn-on and turn-off
angles for the phase excitation currents and the refer-
ence current. The low-speed torque-ripple in SRMs can
be minimized by using the torque ripple minimizing con-
troller algorithm described in [8]. However, since multiple
phase conduction is necessary for torque ripple minimi-
zation, the algorithm does not minimize the losses or
maximize the torque per ampere. The torque per ampere
can be maximized by commutating each phase around a
central commutating angle θci with minimum possible
overlapping conduction. The controller developed for this
EV application is based on torque-per-ampere maximiza-
tion, which is described in the following.
The balanced commutator approach of Wallace et al. [9]
defines a central commutation angle θci where two adja-
cent phases produces the same torque for the same exci-
tation current. At this commutation point one phases
ceases to be the strongest phase, while the in-coming
phases assumes that responsibility. The phase that has
the highest torque-per-ampere capability is designated
as the strongest phase. The out-going phase must be
commutated as quickly as possible, and the in-coming
phase produces the desired torque minus any spurious
torque produced by the decaying phase or phases. Each
phase remains the strongest for the period of θpitch given
by
θ pitch = 360 0 / N ph
where Nph is the number phases. Instantaneous commu-
tation at θci would provide the maximum efficiency opera-
tion with minimum torque ripple and maximum torque-
per-ampere. However, finite inverter voltage results in
finite rise and fall times for the phase currents The cur-
rent rise and fall times also increases with the motor
speed. The magnetization of the in-coming phase and
the commutation of the out-going phase is initiated in
advance of θci so that each of the overlapping phases
produce half the desired torque with equal currents at θci.
The method maximizes the efficiency and the torque-per-
ampere. The decaying phase must be brought down to
zero as quickly as possible to minimize the copper
losses.
5
The back-emf of SRM, which is proportional to speed
and ∂λ / ∂θ , increases with speed and soon saturation
limit of the supply voltage is reached. Therefore, to
achieve the second objective of wide operating speed
range for EV applications, another operating point needs
to be defined where minimum phase voltage is required.
This operating point occurs when ∂λ / ∂θ is minimum,
which occurs when flux l is minimum for SRM. Therefore,
it is preferable to define the central commutation point as
θcl where two phases produce equal levels of torque at
equal levels of flux linkage [9] to get the maximum operat-
ing speed for a given SRM. Of course, the currents will
not be equal and small at θcl resulting in higher losses.
Commutation at θcl is performed in exactly the same way
commutation at θci , but the operation is not as efficient
as before.
θci and θcl represent the two extremes of the operating
range, and the central commutation point θc must be
advanced from the former to the latter as a function of
speed. At low speeds, the torque-ripple minimizing algo-
rithm with extended overlapping conduction must also be
introduced to minimize the torque ripple sacrificing effi-
ciency to some extent. The turn on advance angle for the
incoming phase from θc is obtained from the following
equation,
λ ⋅ω
θ adv = (8)
Vdc
In this project, the most efficient central commutation
point of θci is used until the base speed of the machine
where rated power at minimum possible speed is
obtained. The commutation point θc is advanced linearly
towards θcl until four times the base speed is reached. θcl
is used as the commutation point beyond this maximum
speed.
EV MODELING
The component models of the EV system were integrated
in a Matlab-Simulink system simulation program. The
Simulink program maintains the modular structure of the
composite system, which makes it convenient for expan-
sion and dissemination. The modeling approach and the
simulation results are given in the following.
A. MOTOR MODEL – A switched reluctance motor can
be conveniently described by its flux-angle-current and
torque-angle-current characteristics. Either tables of
these characteristics obtained from static measurements
or finite element analysis or analytical expressions for
flux linkage λ = f (i ,θ ) and torque T = f (i, θ ) can be
used to model the machine. In this project, the analytical
models developed by Art Radun [7] were used to model
the flux-angle-current characteristics and phase current
and torque calculations. These nonlinear models were
shown to match experimental data very closely.
The applied voltage in an SRM is given by the motor. The torque and speed input is used to deter-
mine the central commutation point θc. The commutation
dλ ph scheduler identifies the strongest phase (designated as
V ph = + i ph R ph (9) the kth phase) for torque production between θc and
dt
θc+θpitch using rotor position feedback information. The
The di/dt expression can be derived using the above current in the kth phase is regulated by a hysteresis con-
equation as follows trol to produce the desired torque minus any torque pro-
duced by the non-strongest phases. The current in the (k-
di ph 1  ∂λ  1)th is brought down to zero as quickly as possible to
= V − i R − ω (10)
dt ∂λ  ph ph ph ∂θ  minimize the losses. (k+1)th phase is turned on at θc−
∂i
θadv so that each of kth phase and (k+1)th phase pro-
The phase torque in SRM is obtained from the co-energy duce one-half of the desired torque at θc. Note that only
Wm' which can be calculated from the phase flux linkage. one of the phases used hysteresis control at a given
instant, which reduces the computational load on the
controller.
(11)

The superposition of the individual phase torques gives

the total electromagnetic torque Te.

m
Te = ∑ T ph (i j , θ j ) (12)
j =1

B. EV LOAD MODEL – The EV load model is given by

the equation of motion of Eq. (5) rewritten in the following
form

dv xT
=
1
(FTR − FRL ) (13)
dt kmm

The roadway input information required to compute the
road load FRL is given through the gradient b which is
obtained from either the roadway distance s traversed or
the horizontal distance xf traversed.
β = β ( s ) or β = β (x f ) (14)
The distance equations are given as follows
Figure 6. Torque vs. Speed with constant θc.
θc=[-5o –6o –7o –8o –9o –10o –11o –12o –15o ] (17)
Fig. 6 shows the plots of torque vs. speed with constant
T c . The figure clearly show that at higher speeds T c must
be advanced. At lower speeds, maximum torque/ampere
(T/A) can be achieved using T c . At higher speeds, the
i

torque speed range is extended using phase advancing

(15)
where f(xf) describes the roadway as a function of the
horizontal distance traversed.
C. CONTROLLER MODEL – The controller model con-
sists of a PI speed regulator, commutation scheduler, and
a current /voltage controller. The vehicle speed is con-
verted to motor rpm using the gear ratio and wheel radius
as follows.
Z m = GR ⋅ v xT (16)
rwh
where ωm is the motor speed in rads/sec. GR is the gear
ratio and rwh is the wheel radius. The output of the PI
speed controller serves as the torque command input for
O
towards T c . Obviously, T/A maximization will no longer
be possible. There is an upper limit of advance angle at
T c O beyond which phase advancing does not yield a
higher torque output and the efficiency starts to
decrease. In the designed SRM, this bounding angle was
found to be at θ= ∠150.
The current and voltage controller for the SR machine
generates the gate command signals for the power elec-
tronic converter using the phase current, rotor position,
reference current and a commutation scheduler signals.
The phase current is controlled by hysteresis method as
shown in Figure 8. The phase torque and total torque at
572 rpm are shown in Fig. 9. The simulation results are
obtained under steady state conditions when the vehicle
has reached a constant cruising velocity. The controller
generates a constant reference current that is used by all
three phases. The phase current, voltage and torque at a

6
higher motor speed of 5412 rpm are shown in Figs. 10 E V S R M w aveform s at 54 12 RP M
and 11. Control is accomplished through phase advanc- 300

ing, since the SRM phase current increase is restrained

at higher speeds by the high back-emf. 200

P ha se curren t an d voltag e
E V A cc elera tion 100
30

25 0

20
-100
E V veloci ty in m /s

15

-200
10

-300
5 0. 31 0 .3 11 0 .3 12 0 .3 13 0 .3 14 0 . 315 0 .3 16 0 .3 17 0 .3 18 0 . 319 0. 32
Ti m e, t in S ecs

0
Figure 10. Phase current, voltage, and reference current
-5
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
waveforms of the 60kW EV SRM at 5412 rpm.
Time , t i n S ec s.

D. DIAGNOSTICS BLOCK – The diagnostics block is

Figure 7. Acceleration of the EV with a 60kW SRM.
included to calculate the losses, efficiency and power fac-
tor of the switched reluctance motor. The information is
E V S RM w aveform s at 572 R P M
500 valuable during the design process of a drive for an appli-
cation. The losses in an SRM include the stator copper
400
losses, core losses and friction and windage losses. The
P ha s e c urren t, volta ge and re feren c e c u rren t

300 electrical input to the motor can be easily computed from

the bus voltage and the rms input current. The rms input
200
current is also used to calculate the stator copper losses.
100 The core losses can be calculated using the methods
described in [11,12].
0

The friction and windage losses are calculated from

-100

-200 PFW = K FW ⋅ ω 2 (17)

-300
0. 3 0 .3 05 0. 3 1 0 .3 15 0. 32 0 . 325 0. 3 3 0 .3 35 0. 34 0 . 345 0. 35 where KFW is the friction and windage loss factor. Know-
Tim e, t in S ec s
ing all the losses, the efficiency can be easily calculated.
Figure 8. Phase current, voltage and reference current The power factor for an SRM can be defined as
waveforms of the 60kW EV SRM at 572 rpm.
Tavg ⋅ ω m
PF = (18)
500
E V S RM w aveform s at 572 R P M
Vdc ⋅ I rms
450
where Tavg is the average torque over one electrical
400 period. A plot of the power factor obtained during the
P has e to rq ue an d to ta l torque , in N-m

350 acceleration of the EV is shown in Figure 12. The plot

shows that power factor of an SRM improves with speed,
300
which is a big advantage for the machine. The improve-
250
ment in power factor can be attributed to the high energy
200 storing capability of the machine at higher speeds after
150 the excitation current has been established against a low
100
back-EMF during phase advancing.
50

0
0.3 0 .3 05 0.3 1 0 .3 15 0.32 0 . 325 0.3 3 0 .3 35 0.34 0 . 345 0.35
Tim e, t in S ec s

Figure 9. Phase torque and total torque waveforms of

the 60kW EV SRM at 572 rpm.

7
 E V S R M w aveform s at 54 12 RP M
350 1

0 .8
300

P o wer fac t or
0 .6
P has e to rq ue an d to ta l t orque , in N-m

250 0 .4

0 .2
200
0
0 1 00 2 00 30 0 40 0 50 0 600 700 800 900
s p eed, in ra d/s ec
150
400

A verage t orqu e, in N -m
100
300

50 200

100
0
0. 31 0 .3 11 0 .3 12 0 .3 13 0 .3 14 0 . 315 0 .3 16 0 .3 17 0 .3 18 0 . 319 0. 32
0
Tim e, t in S ec s 0 1 00 2 00 30 0 40 0 50 0 600 700 800 900
s p eed, in ra d/s ec
Figure 11. Phase torque and total torque waveforms of
the 60kW EV SRM at 5412 rpm. Figure 12. Upper trace: Power factor vs. speed, Lower
trace: Average torque vs. speed of the EV
EV RANGE PREDICTION – The simulink model also SRM.
has an EV range prediction algorithm based on the frac-
tional depletion model of batteries. The battery model is The controller generates a reference current command
based on the characteristics of the ESB-EV106 battery. according to the driving cycle. The current drawn by the
The FDM model based on Peukert's equation is given SRM is the input to the battery model, which outputs the
by: fraction of energy depleted in one cycle. The EV range is
then predicted based on number of cycles required for
t
in 100% dod and the number of cycles per mile for the
dod (t ) = [ ∫ dt ] * 100% (19) chosen driving cycle. The results for the designed EV
t0
c under SAE J227a driving schedules B and C using ESB-
EV160 battery are shown in Table II.
where dod = depth of discharge and n & c are the bat-
tery constants that can be extracted from the current vs.
discharge time plots for a given battery. dod (t 0 ) = 0 Table II.
when the battery is fully charged at t = t 0 , For the ESB- SAE J227a Driving Cycle
EV106 batteries, n = 1.35 and c = 645 A − hr . The EV
B C
was tested under SAE J227a driving schedules B and C.
Fraction Depleted over
The urban driving cycles consist of acceleration time, one cycle 1.69 × 10 −3 2.40 × 10 −3
cruise time, coast time, brake time and idle time. SAE
Number of Cycles 591 417
J227a driving cycles B, C and D are shown below in required for 100% dod
Table I. EV range, in miles 147 139

Table I. The command velocity and actual velocity of the EV are

shown in Figure 13.
Test Parameter SAE Schedules
B C D 10
R eferen c e & A c tua l velocity

Max. Speed, V, mph 20 30 45 9

Accel. time, in sec 19 18 28
8
Cruise time, in sec 19 20 50
7
Coast time, in sec 4 8 10
V elocity, in m /sec

Brake time, in sec 5 9 9 6

Idle time, in sec 25 25 25 5

Total time, in sec 72 80 122 4

Approx. # of cycles/ 4-5 3 1 3

mile
2

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Tim e , in sec

Figure 13. Reference and Actual velocity under SAE

J227a schedule B.

8
CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents a design methodology and perfor-
mance simulation of an electric vehicle system. The
paper is focused on the design of the electric propulsion
unit and evaluation of the drive in meeting the vehicle
performance requirements. The paper demonstrates the
effective use of computer tools in the preliminary design
stage of an electric vehicle.
The results presented demonstrated the capability of
SRMs in operating over a wide speed range in the con-
stant power region. This feature along with other positive
attributes of SRMs make it ideally suitable for electric
vehicle applications.
REFERENCES
1. Air pollution-transportation linkage," California air research
Based Office of Strategic Planning, 1989.
2. K.M. Rahman, H.A. Toliyat and M. Ehsani, "Propulsion Sys-
tem design of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles," IEEE Trans. on
Industrial Electronics, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 19-27, Feb. 1997.
3. M. Osama and T.A. Lipo, "A New Inverter Control Scheme
for Induction Motor Drives Requiring Wide Speed Range,"
1995 IEEE-IAS Conf. Proc., pp. 350-355, Orlando, FL.
4. T.M. Jahns, "motion Control With Permanent Magnet AC
Machines," IEEE Proceedings, vol. 82, no. 8, pp. 1241-
1252, Aug. 1994.
9
View publication stats
5. T.M. Jahns, "Flux-Weakening Regime Operation of an Inte-
rior PM synchronous Motor Drive," IEEE Trans. on Industry
Applications, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 681-689, Jul./Aug. 1987.
6. T.J.E. Miller, Switched Reluctance Motor and their Control,
MagnaPhysics, Hillsboro; Ohio; Clarendon Press, Oxford,
U.K.; Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.
7. A.V. Radun, "Design Considerations for the Switched
Reluctance Motor," IEEE Trans. on Industry Applications,
Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 1079-1087, Sept./Oct. 1995.
8. K. Russa, I. Husain and M. Elbuluk, “A Self-Tuning Control-
ler for Switched Reluctance Machines,” 1998 IEEE-PESC
Conf. Proc., pp. 1269-1275, Fukuoka, Japan.
9. R.S. Wallace and D.G. Taylor, "A Balanced Commutator for
Switched Reluctance Motors to Reduce Torque Ripple,"
IEEE Trans. on Power Electronics, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 617-
626, Oct. 1992.
10. P.C. Kjaer, J.J. Gribble, and T.J.E. Miller, "High-grade con-
trol of Switched Reluctance machines," 1996 IEEE-IAS
Annual Conf. Proc., pp. 92-100, San Diego, CA.
11. P. Materu and R. Krishnan, "Estimation of switched reluc-
tance motor losses," 1988 IEEE-IAS Annual Conf. Proc.,
pp. 79-90, Pittsburgh, PA.
12. Y. Hayashi and T.J.E. Miller, "A New Approach to Calculat-
ing Core Losses in the SRM," 1994 IEEE-IAS Annual Conf.
Proc., pp.322-328, Toronto, Canada.