Complete automotive electrical system design

The increasing complexity of electrical and electromechanical systems in vehicles has prompted significant new developments in the automotive industry. The design of these systems requires reliable simulation tools with comprehensive component libraries capable of dealing with complex, multi-domain systems. In addition, these systems should be able to integrate with the various stages of the design processes and support easy information exchange between suppliers and OEMs. This paper outlines the use of Ansoft's SIMPLORER design environment for automotive applications, with a focus on SIMPLORER's automotive component library and its usage cases. The automotive library contains a comprehensive list of electrical and mechanical component models that are typically used in on-board vehicle systems. These components range from fuses, lamps, wires, electrical machines and relays to electrochemical elements like fuel cells and batteries. Due to its open simulator coupling technology, the SIMPLORER simulation environment seamlessly integrates with existing design flows and other design tools like Simulink and ADVISOR. SIMPLORER's compliance with the IEEE standardized modeling language VHDL-AMS encourages new possibilities of model exchange between OEM and suppliers.