Co-Simulation Platform for Simulating Heavy Mobile Machinery With Hydraulic Actuators and Various Hybrid Electric Powertrains

Computer simulations are important tools for evaluating hybrid electric powertrain concepts. In heavy mobile machinery, the powertrain undergoes traction and often hydraulic loads. The dynamic loads on hydraulic actuators of heavy mobile machinery can be studied using detailed physics-based simulation models. The effect of coupling hydraulic actuators to various configurations of hybrid electric powertrains is studied using a co-simulation approach in this study. The case example of a tractor modeled using multibody dynamic approach combined with four powertrain configurations with different topology and hydraulic actuator coupling is investigated. A farm tractor was simulated in a virtual environment with deformable terrain in a soil digging and dumping work cycle. The coupling of hydraulics to the electric energy source in a series-parallel topology achieved fuel savings of 10.5% and total energy savings of 12.3%. The presented modeling method can be used to simulate various heavy mobile machinery to evaluate hybrid electric powertrains using work cycles created by human operators.