MPC-based power management strategy to reduce power loss in energy storage system of a HEV

The current technological trend in transportation is a move toward cleaner energy and one of the fastest growing technologies in this field is the energy storage system (ESS)-regularly comprised of batteries. This trend can be seen in battery (BEV) and hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV). Efficiency of energy storage system (ESS) operation is absolutely crucial to electrified vehicles as batteries are still only capable of delivering a relatively limited amount of power before reaching a discharged state. Minimizing power losses within the electrical system is central to the challenge of developing electric vehicles or plug-in HEV's (PHEV) which can reach extended ranges and create broad consumer appeal. The purpose of our research will be to optimize the operation of the HV/LV electrical system by reducing power loss through control of the DC/DC buck converter duty ratio. A variable DC/DC voltage output will allow the system to use power more efficiently by online matching of the system's real-time power needs. This will be achieved through simulation by a model predictive control (MPC) based power management strategy. Hardware in the loop testing can then be accomplished.