Applications: Powertrain sizing; BEV battery sizing

Battery pack of Chevy Bolt

Docente: Ing. Ángel Quevedo R, Mg.

Facultad de Mecánica – Escuela de Ingeniería Automotriz
EV drive line model

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Speed calculation with torque profile

Sankey diagram for the EV motor power

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Speed calculation with torque profile
The maximum torque curve of
a motor is divided into two
segments: constant torque and
constant power regions.

Using the base speed, ωb , of

the traction motor as a pivot
value, the maximum tractive
effort of EV is set as:

An EV motor tractive effort

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Then, the governing equations for the maximum acceleration are:

For constant torque region

For constant power region

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Example EV parameters:

Exercise:
a) Assume that G = 4.1 and 𝑛𝑑𝑙 = 0.95. Calculate the maximum tractive effort.
Draw the tractive effort versus speed for 50 kW constant power.
b) Assume that the vehicle mass with a load is 1500 kg. Compute road loads
according to:
𝜌. 𝐶𝑑 . 𝐴𝑓 . 𝑉𝑥 2
𝐹𝑟𝑙 = + 𝑓𝑟 . 𝑚𝑣 . 𝑔. 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛼 + 𝑚𝑣 . 𝑔. 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛼
2
When the grades are 0, 10, 20, 30, and 35%. Draw the load lines versus speed.

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Exercise:
Consider an EV with parameters: 𝑚𝑣 = 1598 𝑘𝑔, 𝐴𝑓 = 2𝑚2 , 𝜌 = 1.225 𝑘𝑔Τ𝑚3 ,
𝐶𝑑 = 0.3, 𝑓𝑟 = 0.015, 𝑟𝑤 = 0.284 𝑚, 𝐺 = 9, 𝑛𝑑𝑙 = 0.9, 𝑛𝑓 = 0.8 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝛼 = 0. T he motor
has the constant maximum motor torque of 270 Nm under a base speed. Assume that
𝑘𝑚
the vehicle speed corresponding to the motor base speed is 𝑉𝑥𝑏 = 30 .
ℎ

a) Calculate the time elapsed before the vehicle speed reaches 30 km/h. Neglect the
aerodynamic force, since it is small in a low-speed range.
𝑘𝑚
b) Calculate the maximum motor power at the time vehicle speed reaches 𝑉𝑥 = 30 .
ℎ

c) Compute the acceleration performance utilizing Runge – Kutta 4th method.

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Exercise:
Consider an EV with parameters: 𝑚𝑣 = 1500 𝑘𝑔, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑟 = 0.015. Assume that the
drive line efficiency is 𝑛𝑓 = 0.82. Neglecting the aerodynamic force, calculate the road
load, 𝐹𝑥 when the road grade is 7.5%. Calculate the required motor power to maintain
a vehicle speed at 36 km/h.

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Exercise:
Vehicle energy losses and performance analysis
For a vehicle with mv = 1500 kg, Af . Cd = 0.7 m2 , Cr = 0.012, a vehicle speed
v =120 km/h an a = 0.027g, calculate the traction torque required at the
wheels and the corresponding rotational speed level (tires 195/65/15T).
Calculate the road slope that is equivalent to that acceleration.

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Exercise:
Consider an electric mini-bus parameters: mv = 4500 kg, rw = 0.35 m, and fr = 0.01
a) Assuming the slip, sx = 0.05, calculate wheel speed when the bus runs at 60
km/h.
b) The motor speed is desired to be 7500 rpm when the bus runs at 60 km/h with
the slip 0.05. Determine the gear ratio.
c) The required thrust is 𝐹𝑥 = 4000 𝑁 at 𝑉𝑥 = 60 𝑘𝑚/ℎ. Determine the motor power
assuming that the drive line efficiency with slip is 0.95.
d) Calculate the roll force according to 𝐹𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙 = 𝑓𝑟 𝑚𝑔
e) Suppose that the motor starting torque is 330 Nm. Determine the maximum
grade at start.

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Exercise:
Electric propulsion systems
Design an electric powertrain for a small city car having the following
characteristics: curb mass = 840 kg, payload =2 × 75 𝑘𝑔, tires: 155/65/14T,
𝐶𝑑 . 𝐴𝑓 = 1.85𝑚2 , rolling resistance coefficient =0.009, to meet the following
performance criteria: (i) max speed = 65 km/h, (ii) max grade = 16%, (iii)
100 km/h range. Assume perfect recuperation, overall efficiency of 0.6, and
85% SoC window. Choose motor size in a class with a maximum speed of
6000 rpm and the number of battery modules having a capacity of 1.2 kWh
each

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Energy storage: Lithium

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Battery parameters
Cell voltage: The cell voltage is a function of the chemical reaction within the battery and
can vary significantly with the SOC, age, temperature, and charge or discharge rate.

For instance, the Li-ion cell has a rated voltage of 3.75 V, while the cell voltage can actually
vary from about 4.2 V when fully charged to 2.5 V when fully discharged

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Battery parameters
Cell voltage: The cell voltage is a function of the chemical reaction within the battery and
can vary significantly with the SOC, age, temperature, and charge or discharge rate.

For instance, the Li-ion cell has a rated voltage of 3.75 V, while the cell voltage can actually
vary from about 4.2 V when fully charged to 2.5 V when fully discharged

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Specify energy: The specific energy of a battery is a measure of the stored energy of a
battery per unit weight.
Cycle life: Cycle Life is a measure of the number of times a battery can be charged and
discharged before it reaches its end of life. Electrochemical batteries degrade with time and
usage.
Specific power: Specific power is a measure of the discharge power available from a
battery pack per unit weight. Lead-acid traditionally has had a high specific power and is
used as the starter battery for conventional cars. The newer batteries, such as Li-ion and
NiMH, have comparable specific powers.
Self – discharge: Electrochemical cells consume energy even when not being charged or
discharged. This energy usage is a parasitic use of stored energy and is termed self-
discharge. Self-discharge rates are relatively high for nickel-based batteries compared to
their competitors. There can be a very high initial self-discharge of a battery in the first 24
hours after being fully charged, but this rate tapers off. The self-discharge rates can increase
significantly with temperature. Note that while the self-discharge of Li-ion is less than 2%,
the overall self discharge of a battery pack may be closer to 5% as up to an additional 3%
may be required by the electronic system and circuits managing the battery pack.

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Lifetime and sizing considerations
Time and charge/discharge cycles: One of the characteristics of electrochemical cells is that the
ability to store charge degrades with time. Repeated deep charge/discharge cycles can even more
significantly result in a reduced lifetime.
Lifetime: The lifetime of a battery can be described using time (years) or repeated cycles. Automotive
batteries may have an additional requirement expressed as range in miles or kilometers.
Beginning of life (BOL): The beginning-of-life parameters are typically the values for the capacity
and the internal resistance of the battery when it is initially manufactured.
End of life (EOL): The end-of-life parameters are the values of critical components once they degrade
with time or usage. A typical end of life criterion is for the battery energy storage capacity to drop to
80% of BOL value or for the internal resistance to increase by 50%.
State of charge (SOC): is the portion of the total battery capacity that is available for discharge. It is
often expressed as a percentage and can be seen as a measure of how much energy remains in the
battery.
Depth of discharge (DOD): is the portion of electrical energy stored in a battery that has been
discharge. It is often expressed as a percentage.
For example: if a pack capacity is 24 kWh and 6 kWh has been discharged, the DOD is 6/24 or 25%.
The remaining energy in the pack is the 18 kWh, and the SOC is 18/24 or 75%

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Battery life testing

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BEV battery Sizing
Determine the beginning-of-life kilowatt-hour storage required in a BEV battery pack based
on the following requirements: eight years of operation, an average of 48 km of driving per
day 𝑠𝑑𝑎𝑦 over the 365 days of the year, daily charging, and an average battery output
𝑊ℎ
energy per kilometer 𝐸𝑘𝑚 = 180 𝑘𝑚 . Assume L = 1 and 𝑁100% = 1000. Assume two
parallel battery strings with 96 Li-ion cells per string, with a total number of cells 𝑁𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑙 =
192, and a nominal voltage of 3.75 V per cell.
i) Determine the ampere-hours per cell.
ii) What are the vehicle ranges at BOL and EOL?

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PHEV Battery Sizing
In this example, we repeat the above exercise for an enhanced-lifetime battery for use in a
PHEV with a cycle lifetime index L = 3. A single string of batteries is assumed.

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Summary:
These two examples illustrate some of the challenges of sizing a battery pack. The lower-
lifetime BEV battery pack has to be oversized for daily driving in order to meet the
lifetime. The enhanced-lifetime PHEV battery pack can be much smaller but has less
overall energy and reduced range at BOL and EOL. As the DOD is reduced, the pack cycle
life can increase very significantly into hundreds of thousands of cycles. The typical HEV
battery pack uses only a relatively small range of DOD, resulting in very long lifetimes
over hundreds of thousands of cycles.

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Problems:
A BEV has the following requirements: eight years of operation at an average of 24,000 km
per year, averaged out over 365 days per year. Assume an average battery output of 204
Wh/km and a rated cell voltage of 3.6 V, a capacity of 3.4 Ah, and a lifetime index of L = 1.
Assume 𝑁100% = 1000.
i) Determine the BOL kWh storage.
ii) How many cells do you need and what is the BOL range?
iii) What is the BOL storage and how many cells are required for a larger pack in order to
increase the BOL range to 425 km?
iv) How many parallel strings are required if the pack has 96 cells in series?
v) What is the battery pack mass, assuming a battery with a pack density of 150 Wh/kg?
vi) If the peak power is 325 kW, what is the P/E ratio of the battery for the larger pack?

[Ans. 39.16 kWh, 3,200, 192 km, 86.7 kWh, 7,083, 74, 578 kg, 3.5]

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Problems:
A PHEV battery pack has the following requirements: ten years of operation at an
average of 50 km per day, an average battery output of 5 km/kWh, and a 14.6 Ah cell
with a rated voltage of 3.65 V and an index of L = 3. Assume 𝑁100% = 1000.
i) What is the BOL battery pack energy storage?
ii) What is the total number of cells required, to the nearest factor of 3?
iii) What is the pack voltage if the pack is in series-parallel with three cells in parallel?
iv) If the peak power is 110 kW, what is the P/E ratio of the battery?
v) What is the battery pack mass, assuming a with a pack density of 150 Wh/kg?

[Ans. 15.4 kWh, 288 (to nearest multiple of 3), 350 V, 7.1, 103 kg]

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Task: powertrain sizing
Consider an HEV vehicle with the following characteristics:
Vehicle
Weight without battery pack [kg] 1249
Aero. Drag, 𝐶𝑑 0.27
Frontal area, A [m2] 1.9
Rolling resist. Coef. 𝜇𝑟𝑟 0.0065
Tyre radius 𝑟𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑙 [𝑚] 0.3
Gear efficiency 0.95
Slip 0.1

Performance specifications:
Cruising speed [km/h] 120
Gradeability [%] 7.5

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 Electric traction specifications:
Electrical traction specifications
Motor efficiency 0.9
Inverter efficiency 0.9

Performance specifications:
Battery
𝑉𝐷𝐶 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 [V] 323
Max SOC [%] 95
Min SOC [%] 5
Battery efficiency 0.9
Specific energy [W.h/kg] 100

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Formulae:
1 𝑑
𝐹𝑡𝑒 = 𝜇𝑟𝑟 . 𝑚. 𝑔. 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝛼 + . 𝜌𝑎𝑖𝑟 . 𝐴𝑓 . 𝐶𝑑 . 𝑣 2 + 𝑚. 𝑔. 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝛼 + 1.05𝑚 𝑣
2 𝑑𝑡

𝐹𝑡𝑒 . 𝑟𝑤
𝑇= 𝑣 = Ω𝑤 . 1 − 𝑠 . 𝑟𝑤
𝐺. 𝑛𝑔

𝑃𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑃𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 =
𝑛𝑔 . 1 − 𝑠

𝑑[𝑘𝑚]
𝐸 = 𝑃𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 [𝑘𝑊]
𝑘𝑚
𝑣[ ]
ℎ

1
1 1 1
𝐸𝑏𝑎𝑡 𝑘𝑊. ℎ = 𝐸
𝑛𝑏𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑒𝑚 𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑣 𝑆𝑂𝐶𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑆𝑂𝐶𝑚𝑖𝑛

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Motivation
A BEV powertrain consists of a battery pack, an inverter, a battery charger, and an
electric propulsion motor. For BEV fully acceptation in the market, the desirable
driving range is 300 km per charge with a battery life of 10 years. Adding more
battery packs is not the way of extending the driving range, since the weight
increases and so do rolling resistance and climbing resistance. Making twice the
battery capacity the range is not exactly doubled. This effect is accentuated
depending on vehicle parameters.

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Objectives:
Calculate driving range with different battery capacities. Plot the battery capacity or weight
versus the range.
Hypothesis:
Vehicle speed is 120 km/h
The specific energy of the battery pack is 100 kWh/kg.
Calculate:
According data provided, calculate the BEV range for each battery pack and grade, shown in
the table.
Fulfill the following table:
Battery mass Capacity Range @ zero Range @ 7.5%
[kg] [kW.h] grade [km] grade [km]
200 20
400 40
600 60
800 80

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Elon Musk of Tesla Inc. introduced the new Tesla truck – trailer in late 2017. He
announced the following vehicle parameters: gross vehicle weight m = 36280 kg
(80000 lb) when fully loaded, drag co – efficient 𝐶𝐷 = 0.36, and range when fully
loaded of 804.5 km (500 miles) at an average speed of 96,54 km/h (60 mph). Assume
the vehicle has the following attributes: vehicle cross – section A = 9 𝑚2 , co – efficient
of rolling resistance 𝐶𝑅 = 0.006 , nominal efficiency of the powertrain and
transmission Ƞ𝑝𝑡 = 85%, auxiliary load 𝑃𝑎𝑢𝑥 = 2𝑘𝑊, tire radius r = 0.55 m, four Tesla
Model S traction motors combined and rated ay 1760 Nm and 1080 kW, gearing ratio
G = 20, and gearing efficiency Ƞ𝑔 = 95%. Let the density of air 𝜌𝑎𝑖𝑟 = 1.2 𝑘𝑔 𝑚−3 .
i) Determine the battery energy required to meet the range when fully loaded
ii) Determine the approximate time for the fully – loaded truck – trailer to accelerate
from 0 to 60 mph, while ignoring vehicle load forces.

[Ans. 945.5 kWh, 17.85 s]

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