Sensitivity of design parameters on SOC and fuel efficiency of HEV

This paper envisages the impact of different design parameters on State Of Charge (SOC), and fuel efficiency of a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV). The parameters considered here are mass, frontal area and coefficient of drag of the HEV. Effect of three critical parameters of a vehicle are analyzed using vehicle model in ADVISOR software. Sensitivity analysis is used here as the methodology for the study and this is done using SOC index. Six standard driving cycles to represent various driving conditions are considered for the analysis. SOC variation and fuel consumption vary from one driving cycle to other. Study on a single driving cycle is not enough to get a conclusion regarding performance of HEV with change in design parameters. So study on different driving cycles which represent urban, highway driving have been conducted and sensitivities are tabulated. Effect of design parameters on fuel efficiency and SOC of HEV has been found out and that would help to design HEVs with higher fuel economy and SOC sustainability.