Modelling of an underground electric vehicle cycle for battery sizing analysis using Modelica

Abstract

A Modelica library for battery sizing of underground mining electric vehicles is presented. The library named UGMiningBEV, facilitates modelling underground mining electric vehicles with different design parameters and architectures, under varying working scenarios. UGMiningBEV includes models of vehicle transmission, auxiliary driving-related systems (steering and braking), mixer drum, lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), cooling, battery and battery charging. It also includes validation examples of relevant components and the model of an electric concrete mixer for underground mining and its typical working cycle. The technical contribution of the library lies in the variety of subsystems that can be integrated, combined with a working cycle that allows the simulation of vehicle mission profiles based on distance travelled or time elapsed. The UGMiningBEV library has been developed using Dymola 2021x and is freely available under the Modelica License 2 terms.