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I Introduction

Over the past several years, Texas Tech University’s Advanced Vehicle Engineering Laboratory (AVEL) has converted numerous conventional vehicles to hybrid electric (HEVs) and alternative fueled vehicles.1-14 Each vehicle is composed of many sub systems all of which require extensive monitoring and control in addition to the overall vehicle control issues. Many of these sub systems have built-in microprocessor based monitoring and control systems that must be interfaced to the overall system control. System interfacing through a controller area network (CAN) bus is standard in automotive systems. The increasing complexity of sub systems is requiring validation testing before inclusion into the system. This leads to test procedure concepts such as hardware in the loop and software in the loop.

The development of the vehicle is a complex, large team, multidisciplinary project with students primarily from mechanical engineering, electrical and computer engineering. The majority of the team members are enrolled in a two-semester senior design sequence in either Electrical or Mechanical Engineering. Some graduate students and volunteers also participated in the program. The project last longer than the courses. In addition, students enter the project in different semesters. This gives rise to a large turn over in team members on a semester basis. Faculty advisors from both electrical and mechanical engineering provide guidance for the team. Large, interdisciplinary team real-world projects like this can give students a more complete understanding of interfacing, decision making and cooperation in amore realistic engineering environment.

The project described here is to convert a GM Equinox into an alternative fueled, hybrid electric vehicle with lower emissions and greater fuel efficiency than the original. This is part of the Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored Challenge X competition.15 The first step in the development process is to choose fuels and components to use in the vehicle. Simulations are an important tool to evaluate different choices.

II. Fuels

Although gasoline and diesel engines have already been well developed for different applications for various vehicles, these fuels are made from petroleum which is not renewable. In addition, these engines produce several objectionable emissions: Nitrogen oxides (NOX), hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter, and greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide (CO2). The fuels chosen are a combination of hydrogen (H2) and ethanol (E85). The combination of fuels provides low well-to-wheels emissions, high fuel efficiency, and sufficient power to meet all vehicle performance requirements.

Ethanol is produced from renewable resources such as corn, sugar cane, biomass, plant material, etc. Ethanol has a high octane rating (about 102), burns at lower temperatures

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Parten, M., & Maxwell, T. (2007, June), Monitoring And Control In Advanced Vehicle Engineering Laboratories Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2624