Title: A PC-based vehicle powertrain simulation for fuel economy and performance studies

Authors: A.W. Phillips, D.N. Assanis

Addresses: Automotive Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA. ' Automotive Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Abstract: A personal-computer-based vehicle simulation is developed to predict fuel economy. The program, called VPS, can model either steady-state or time-varying driver behaviour, for vehicles with both manual and automatic transmissions. This paper summarizes the governing equations used in the model. Then the different simulation techniques are described, with emphasis on the more complicated time-dependent simulation. The real system used to validate the program is described, and simulation data are compared to the actual test data. Then three simulation studies are conducted to illustrate the utility of VPS as a comparative tool. It is concluded that the program provides good qualitative predictions of vehicle fuel economy and is especially useful for comparing similar components in vehicle drivelines due to the modular form of its input data.

Keywords: fuel economy; vehicle performance; powertrain simulation; vehicle drivelines; vehicle design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.1989.061555

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 1989 Vol.10 No.6, pp.639 - 658

Published online: 26 May 2014 *

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