Optimization-based Component Sizing Method for Electrified Heavy-Duty Powertrain Concepts

The demand for battery-powered, exhaust emission-free mobile machinery is increasing. However, the high energy requirements of mobile machines result in large, heavy and expensive battery storage systems. Driven by continuously decreasing but still fairly high battery costs battery costs, the efficiency of the drive system is becoming the focus of development activities, even in an industry where robustness, service lifetime, productivity and power density have been the driving factors up to now. Interactions between topology, component sizing, and control strategy require a system-level approach for the development of drive systems. In this paper, a novel optimization-based sizing method for electrified heavy-duty powertrain concepts is presented and applied to subsystems of a wheeled excavator. Scalable component cost and efficiency models are used in a system simulation to calculate objective function values for a multi-objective optimization. The result of the optimization, a trade-off between energy consumption and costs provides the OEM with a decision support in the development process. The modular structure of the approach allows a subsequent extension of the design parameter space as well as the detailing of the models used.