Unit – 5 Vehicle Mechanics

PROPULSION POWER

The desired power rating of the electric motor or the power required from the combination of
electric motor and internal combustion engine (i.e. the propulsion unit) can be calculated from the
above equations based on the system constraints of starting acceleration, vehicle rated and
maximum velocity and vehicle gradability. The torque at the wheels of the vehicle can be obtained
from the power relation

where rwh is the radius of the wheel in meters. The losses between the propulsion unit and wheels

in the transmission and the differential have to be appropriately accounted for while specifying the

power requirement of the propulsion unit. A big advantage of an electrically driven propulsion
system is the elimination of multiple gears to match the vehicle 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 transmission 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. However, higher
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 typically used for EVs with the gear ratio rarely exceeding 10.

Maximum gradeability

The maximum grade that a vehicle will be able to overcome with the maximum force available from

the propulsion unit is an important design criterion as well as performance measure. The vehicle

is expected to move forward very slowly when climbing a steep slope, and hence, we can make the

following assumptions for maximum gradability:

VELOCITY AND ACCELERATION

The energy required from the propulsion unit depends on the desired acceleration and the road load

force that the vehicle has to overcome. The maximum acceleration is limited by the maximum
tractive

power available and the roadway condition at the time of vehicle operation. Although the road load
force is unknown in a real-world roadway, significant insight about the vehicle velocity profile and
energy requirement can be obtained through studies of assumed scenarios. The vehicles are typically
designed with a certain objective, such as maximum acceleration on a given roadway slope on a
typical weather condition.

Tractive Power

The instantaneous tractive power delivered by the propulsion unit is

Energy Required
Traction force at Tire–road interface

The rotary motion of the axles is converted to linear motion of the vehicle at the tire–road interface

to enable vehicle motion. When a torque is applied at a driven wheel through the axle of a vehicle,
friction forces proportional to the traction torque are developed at the tire–road interface. The
forces on the tire are not localized at a point as mentioned previously but are the resultant of the
normal and shear stresses exerted by each element of the tire tread distributed in the contact patch.
The stress under the tire is distributed non-uniformly in the x- and z-directions along the
two-dimensional contact patch at the tire–road interface; this two-dimensional stress distribution
gives rise to both longitudinal and lateral forces. The longitudinal and lateral forces can be obtained
by integrating the shear stress in the contact patch over the contact area. The longitudinal force is
the traction force responsible for the forward velocity of the vehicle.

The forces on a wheel and the stress distribution at the tire–road interface are shown in Figure 2.18.
The stress distribution and the resultant forces are shown in relation with the contact patch area at
the tire–road interface. The traction torque TTR working around the axis of rotation of the wheel
results in the wheel angular velocity ωwh; this traction torque is primarily responsible for the
distributed pressure or stress at the tire–road interface. The longitudinal stress distribution over the
contact patch is shown to have generated the traction force. In addition, there is normal stress due
the weight borne at the axle of wheel which works in the vertical y-direction. The vertical or normal
pressure shifts forward due to the deformation of the tire at the tire–road interface. Consequently,
the centroid of the normal road reaction force is shifted forward and is not aligned with the spin axis
of the wheel. This results in the rolling resistance force Froll. Figure 2.18 also shows the normal stress
distribution over the contact patch area of the rolling tire. The normal stress distribution integrated
over the contact patch area results in the normal road reaction force FgyT. The normal force FgyT
plays a strong role in determining the traction force limit.
PROPULSION SYSTEM DESIGN

The steady-state maximum velocity, maximum gradeability and the velocity equations can be used

in the design stage to specify the power requirement of a particular vehicle. Let us consider the
tractive power requirement for initial acceleration, which plays a significant role in determining the
rated power of the propulsion unit. The initial acceleration is specified as 0 to vf in tf s. The design
problem is to solve for FTR starting with a set of variables including vehicle mass, rolling resistance,
aerodynamic drag coefficient, percent grade, wheel radius, etc., some of which are known, while
others have to be assumed. The acceleration of the vehicle in terms of these variables is given by

The tractive force output of the electric motor for an EV or the combination of electric motor and
internal combustion engine for a HEV will be a function of the vehicle velocity. Furthermore, the road
load characteristics are also function of velocity resulting in a transcendental equation to be solved
to determine the desired tractive power from the propulsion unit. The other design requirements
also play a significant role in determining the tractive power.

POWERTRAIN COMPONENT SIZING

The complete design of a vehicle is complex involving numerous variables, constraints,

considerations and understanding of the systems interactions. The interactions are typically
interdisciplinary and require multi-physics analysis and simulations. The full treatment of a vehicle
design is beyond the scope of this book, but from the roadway fundamentals, the vehicle dynamics
and the architectures presented thus far, we can address the fundamental calculations involved in
sizing of the powertrain components. The calculations provide the design data for starting computer
modelling and simulation for detailed analysis of a complex EV and HEV systems. The computer
modelling and simulation continues with design iterations and subsystem resizing and controller
updates until simulation results meet the specifications.

The primary design specifications related to powertrain sizing are: (i) the initial acceleration,

(ii) rated velocity on a given slope, (iii) maximum % grade and (iv) maximum steady-state velocity.

The zero-emission range is the most important specification for sizing the capacity of the battery
pack. The energy required for a given acceleration and constant steady-state velocity can be used for
the sizing of the energy system.

EV Powertrain sizing

The major components in the powertrain of an EV are the electric motor and the energy storage
system. The sizing of the electric motor involves finding the power rating of the motor and the
operating speed range. The voltage rating and the dimensional packaging constraints must also be
specified at the system-level design stage. The design of the machine itself is handled by the electric
machine designed to meet the requirements set at the system level. The discussion below addresses
the power rating of the electric machine to meet vehicle performance requirements. The sizing of
the energy storage device will be addressed later in the hybrid vehicle design section.

Electric motors have three major segments in its torque–speed characteristics: (i) Constant torque
region, (ii) constant power region and (iii) natural mode region. The envelop of the electric motor
torque–speed characteristics is shown in Figure 3.12. The motor delivers rated torque up to the base
speed or rated speed of the motor when it reaches its rated power condition. The motor rated speed
is defined as the speed at which the motor can deliver rated torque at rated power. The motor
operates in a constant power mode beyond the rated speed where torque falls off steadily at a rate
that is inversely proportional to speed. Electric motor can operate at speeds higher than rated using
field weakening in the constant power region. There is a third natural mode region for very high
motor speeds where the torque falls off rapidly being inversely proportional to the square of the
speed. The natural characteristic region can be an important part of the overall torque speed curve
of certain motors that can be used to reduce the power rating of the motor. However, in most cases,
the vehicle’s maximum speed is considered to be at the end of the constant power region. Note that
the curves in Figure 3.12 show the envelope, i.e., the operating torque and speed limits in different
regions. The electric motor can operate at any point within the envelope through the feed from a
power electronics-based motor drive component. The salient feature of wide-operating speed range
characteristics of an electric motor makes it possible to eliminate multiple gear ratios and the clutch
in EV and other applications. A single-gear ratio transmission is sufficient for linking the electric
motor with the driveshaft. Electric motors with extended constant power region characteristics are
needed to minimize the gear size in EVs.
The size of an electric motor depends on the maximum torque required from the machine. The
higher the maximum torque required, the larger will be the size of the motor. In order to minimize
the size and weight, electric motors are designed for high-speed operation for a given power rating.
Gears are used to match the higher speed of the electric motor with the lower speed of the wheels.
Typical motor speeds can be in the vicinity of 15,000 rev/m for typical wheel speeds of around 1,000
rev/m for lightweight passenger vehicles. The transmission gear achieves this speed reduction in the
range of ~10–15:1 typically in two stages of 3–4:1 of speed reduction. The gear sizing depends on
whether the low- or the high-speed performance of the EV is more important based on the power
rating determined for the EV.

The tractive force versus speed characteristics of the propulsion system can be widely different for
two gear ratios as shown in Figure 3.13. Note that the rated speeds shown are for the drivetrain unit
comprising of the electric motor and transmission system, and that the electric motor rated speed is
different from these values. The electric motor speed can first be converted into drivetrain unit
speed or vehicle wheel speed using the gear ratio as shown earlier. The motor rated speed at the
wheel ωrm,wh in rad/s can be converted to linear vehicle speed using vrm = ωrm,wh . rwh, where
rwh is the radius of the wheel. The symbol vrm is referred to here as the equivalent electric motor
linear speed after accounting for the transmission gear and the wheel radius. A higher wheel speed
or vehicle speed can be attained with a smaller gear ratio, but the peak traction force that the
drivetrain can deliver will be smaller. The smaller traction force will limit the initial acceleration and
maximum gradeability capabilities of the vehicle. On the other hand, if a high gear ratio is used in the
transmission for the same electric motor, the peak traction force available at the wheels will be
higher, but the maximum vehicle speed vmax will be limited. Therefore, we can conclude that the
gear ratio depends on the motor rated speed, vehicle rated speed, vehicle maximum speed, wheel
radius and maximum gradeability. It must be observed that a higher gear ratio entails a larger gear
size. Therefore, the gear ratio and the electric motor rated speed must be selected simultaneously to
optimize the overall size and performance requirements. In the following, the design of the electric
motor will be discussed in view of the specified requirements of the initial acceleration, the rated
velocity on a given slope, the maximum steady state velocity and the maximum gradeability. In the
process, the following parameters will be used: rated motor power Pm, rated motor speed ωrm,
rated wheel speed ωfwh, rated vehicle speed vf, vehicle total mass m, vehicle frontal area AF, rolling
resistance coefficients C0 and C1, and aerodynamic drag coefficient CD. The design process starts
with a set of known parameters and some educated guess, and ends with the final design values that
meet the requirements after several iterations.