To opti­mi­se deve­lo­p­ment of the trac­tion battery, APL offers a compre­hen­si­ve port­fo­lio of test­ing and simu­la­ti­on. In order to demons­tra­te the decisi­ve syner­gies from the battery pack down to the cell level and their rele­van­ce in drive­train deve­lo­p­ment, various simu­la­ti­on methods, in-house models and commer­cial soft­ware packa­ges are utili­sed. These range from CFD calcu­la­ti­ons to ther­mal-elec­tri­cal and chemi­cal-physi­cal battery models to comple­te vehic­le simu­la­ti­ons. The know­ledge gained from simu­la­ti­ons is combi­ned to form a comple­te system over­view and further corre­la­ted with measu­re­ment results. This approach allows the design and opti­mi­sa­ti­on of battery systems in a holi­stic approach. The input para­me­ters can be deter­mi­ned and the models vali­da­ted by means of tests on APL’s in-house high-volta­ge test benches and the measu­re­ment of battery perfor­mance data during real operation.

The deve­lo­p­ment of elec­tric motors includes both basic design and test­ing. Calcu­la­ti­on models, such as magne­tic circuit simu­la­ti­on, are an essen­ti­al part of deve­lo­p­ment. The mecha­ni­cal deve­lo­p­ment of elec­tric motors focu­ses on the design of the rotor, lami­na­ti­on stack and housing as well as cooling concept and tribo­lo­gi­cal boun­da­ry conditions.

APL uses modern test systems and HiL networks for basis data programming of system compon­ents. The battery, power elec­tro­nics and elec­tric motor can be inte­gra­ted into the test envi­ron­ment with the goal of achie­ving best possi­ble effi­ci­en­cy, taking system limi­ta­ti­ons into account.

Using simu­la­ti­on models in a Matlab/Simulink envi­ron­ment and appli­ca­ti­on tools such as INCA Flow or AVL Cameo, data for basic func­tions, or more complex func­tions such as the rotor tempe­ra­tu­re model, can be input based on models and (parti­al­ly) auto­ma­ted. High demands with respect to precise torque control and repro­du­ci­b­le mapping of tempe­ra­tu­re beha­viour can be met on APL test benches.

Compe­ti­ti­ve analy­ses of hybri­di­sed and elec­tri­fied drives, inclu­ding equip­ping vehic­les with special measu­re­ment tech­no­lo­gies, can be carri­ed out inde­pendent­ly and using the enti­re infra­struc­tu­re (such as chas­sis dyna­mo­me­ter test benches or measu­re­ment and diagno­stic labo­ra­to­ries) at APL.