Energy Efficiency Analyses of Hybrid Non-Road Mobile Machinery by Real-Time Virtual Prototyping

Abstract

Striving for energy efficiency and tightening emission regulations for diesel engines drive the non-road mobile machinery towards new driveline solutions, diesel-electric hybridization being one of them. Series hybridization has shown a positive impact on machine fuel consumption by enabling the diesel engine to be operated according to the machine average power, whereas with conventional diesel-mechanical or hydrostatic driveline solutions, the diesel engine has to be dimensioned according to the peak power demand of the machine, when it can suitably envelop the whole operating cycle power demand. Typical characteristics of the non-road mobile machines include a high peak power demand and a quite low average power (even 25% of the peak), which makes hybridization an extremely attractive option.

However, penetrating the machine market with new solutions takes time and prototyping. By applying virtual prototyping and cosimulation, a virtual multi-body simulation model of a machine can be used to dimension and test various hybridization concepts and iterate the driveline to a much further state before physical prototypes are needed.

This doctoral dissertation introduces a hybrid non-road mobile machine cosimulation platform, and by three separate case studies, demonstrates the fuel consumption saving potential of hybridization. With all the cases, roughly a 50% fuel consumption reduction is achieved without negative impacts on machine performance.