Search NASA⌕ Search

Engineering topics

Boriboonsomsin, Kanok

Publications and source records attributed to Boriboonsomsin, Kanok.

Application of Wireless Charging at Seaports for Range Extension of Drayage Battery Electric Trucks

Even though heavy-duty battery electric trucks (BETs) have become commercially available, their range limitation still hinders widespread adoption. Drayage has been regarded as a suitable application for early BETs due to typically having limited daily mileage. However, drayage operation can vary widely and some form of range extension may still be needed for BETs operating in this application. Here, in this paper, wireless charging at port terminals is proposed for this purpose. Potential wireless charging zones at port terminals are identified, and efficacy of wireless charging to extend BET range in drayage operation is verified by simulating the activity of 20 BETs from a drayage operator serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, using a microscopic BET energy consumption model. Furthermore, an optimization problem is formulated for optimal wireless charging zone planning from the port authority's perspective, considering subsets of the identified zones, and charging power options to choose from, for different budget ranges. In this context, zone planning means determining which areas of the port terminals should be selected for installing wireless charging systems, and what level of charging power should be for each selected zone's system. For each budget range, the optimization problem is solved using genetic algorithm to determine an optimal zone plan that provides the maximum amount of energy through wireless charging per unit cost of installation. The results show that wireless charging can aid improving activity completion of the simulated fleet by 5%, and further optimizing the zone plan can achieve similar performance with lower cost.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Comprehensive powertrain modeling for heavy-duty applications: A study of plug-in hybrid electric bus

A comprehensive forward-looking powertrain model with an efficiency-based control strategy was developed to achieve real-time optimization of plug-in hybrid electric buses while considering the real vehicle drivability and the practical operation of all powertrain components under real driving conditions. The control strategy is based on a supervisory control algorithm that alternately employs charge-dominant control and discharge-dominant control to manage multiple powertrain sources, and enable an optimal overall efficiency-based powertrain operation state by maximizing the inherent optimal powertrain efficiency through best all transmission gear choice and the blend of motor and/or engine power. In the model, a component energy efficiency database was developed to rapidly enable an smart and optimal operating state determined from a set of efficiency maps characterizing the component and powertrain control states as a function of the instantaneous vehicle operational condition. The results revealed that the energy savings achieved with the innovative powertrain control improved by 10%–30% compared with the baseline hybrid powertrain control strategy. The benefits of eco-driving with respect to energy consumption were also evaluated using the powertrain model. The powertrain control model was implemented into a real hybrid bus. Measured energy savings with the optimized control strategy were similar to the simulated results.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Feasibility of Operating a Heavy-Duty Battery Electric Truck Fleet for Drayage Applications

Vehicle fleet electrification is regarded as one major pathway toward achieving energy independence and reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Compared to light-duty and medium-duty vehicles, electrification of heavy-duty vehicles, especially Class 8 trucks, is more challenging owing to the battery size required to attain the driving range necessary for their operating goals. As drayage trucks generally have a limited daily mileage, return to a home base every night, and spend a large amount of time creeping and idling, drayage operation has been the first targeted application for Class 8 electric trucks. The feasibility of operating battery electric drayage trucks at the individual vehicle level has recently been demonstrated. However, questions remain as to whether these trucks are capable of meeting the needs of typical drayage operation at the fleet level. Here we present a feasibility analysis of operating an electric truck fleet based on real-world operation data of a diesel drayage operator in Southern California. Second-by-second activity data collected from 20 trucks in the fleet were used to estimate the corresponding electric energy consumption and the state of charge of the battery using a microscopic electric energy consumption model. An algorithm for generating tours of drayage activity from the collected data was developed and implemented. Multiple scenarios with different battery charging and truck scheduling assumptions were analyzed. The results show that 85% of the tours could be served by electric trucks if there is opportunity for charging at the home base during the time gap between consecutive tours.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Dyno-in-the-Loop: An Innovative Hardware-in-the-Loop Development and Testing Platform for Emerging Mobility Technologies

Today’s transportation is quickly transforming with the nascent advent of connectivity, automation, shared-mobility, and electrification. These technologies will not only affect our safety and mobility, but also our energy consumption, and environment. As a result, it is of unprecedented importance to understand the overall system impacts due to the introduction of these emerging technologies and concepts. Existing modeling tools are not able to effectively capture the implications of these technologies, not to mention accurately and reliably evaluating their effectiveness with a reasonable scope. To address these gaps, a dynamometer-in-the-loop (DiL) development and testing approach is proposed which integrates test vehicle(s), chassis dynamometer, and high fidelity traffic simulation tools, in order to achieve a balance between the model accuracy and scalability of environmental analysis for the next generation of transportation systems. With this DiL platform, a connected eco-operation system for the plug-in hybrid electric bus (PHEB) has been developed and tested, which can optimize the vehicle dynamics (and potentially powertrain control via smart energy management) to reduce the operational energy consumption as well as tailpipe emissions of the target PHEB. The system performance has been evaluated on the DiL platform with respect to a variety of traffic congestion levels. The results have shown that the developed system can save fuel by more than 13% while reducing the electricity consumption by 2% in the test scenarios.

Wu, Guoyuan↗

Deep Learning-Based Queue-Aware Eco-Approach and Departure System for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Buses at Signalized Intersections: A Simulation Study

Eco-Approach and Departure (EAD) has been considered as a promising eco-driving strategy for vehicles traveling in an urban environment, where information such as signal phase and timing (SPaT) and geometric intersection description is well utilized to guide vehicles passing through intersections in the most energy-efficient manner. Previous studies formulated the optimal trajectory planning problem as finding the shortest path on a graphical model. While this method is effective in terms of energy saving, its computation efficiency can be further enhanced by adopting machine learning techniques. In this paper, we propose an innovative deep learning-based queue-aware eco-approach and departure (DLQ-EAD) system for a plug-in hybrid electric bus (PHEB), which is able to provide an online optimal trajectory for the vehicle considering both the downstream traffic condition (i.e. traffic lights, queues) and the vehicle powertrain efficiency. Based on optimal solutions obtained from the graph-based trajectory planning algorithm (GTPA), a deep neural network (DNN) is developed to learn the optimal vehicle speed for the next time step given its current state. It is demonstrated that the trained DNN can provide energy-efficient trajectories with high computational efficiency and high flexibility adopting to dynamic changes in the surrounding environment. To address the impact of downstream traffic, a queue prediction model is further developed using data from radars and connected vehicles (CVs), as well as signal timing data from SPaT messages. A comprehensive simulation study in the microscopic traffic modeling software PTV VISSIM shows that the proposed DLQ-EAD can achieve 18.7%-24.0% energy efficiency improvements for a single PHEB on various traffic congestion levels. The proposed queue prediction model can be of practical significance even at low penetration rates of CVs. Specifically, additional energy savings of 2.0%-8.2% can be further achieved with 20% vehicles in the network.

Ye, Fei↗