Research and Modeling of Interior Temperature Regimes of City Electric Minibuses, which Use a Heating System with Thermal Batteries

Abstract

Electric buses running on city routes have different thermal conditions than long-distance intercity buses. The main difference is the frequent stops every 0.5–1 minutes and the embarkation and disembarkation of passengers, which causes heat loss. On the other hand, such routes offer the possibility to recharge heating batteries with contactless or non-contact wireless charging systems during stops. In order not to reduce the driving distance of the bus by consuming energy from electric batteries for heating, one option is to use heating batteries. As the total duration of routes from one final destination to another varies from half an hour to an hour depending on the city, but the duration of parking at the end destination is 10–15 minutes, heating batteries must provide cabin heating for one full journey using fast charging while standing at the final stops. This is the main condition for choosing the energy capacity of heating batteries. In the research there was developed and in the article there is described a simulation model in MATLAB/Simulink, which allows modelling different heating power and temperature regimes by varying the bus cabin microclimate influencing factors, such as outside temperature, door opening duration, the heat emitted by passengers, etc. Recommendations are given for levelling the temperature in the cabin, which, according to the measurement data, is markedly uneven.