One year into a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded project, ANSYS, General Motors LLC, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and ESim are leveraging engineering simulation technology to optimize electric and hybrid vehicle battery performance. The team achieved significant milestones during the past year in support of the DOE’s Computer Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries (CAEBAT) project.
The main goal of the CAEBAT project is to incorporate existing and new battery models into engineering simulation software to shorten design cycles and optimize batteries for increased performance, safety and life span. The project is driving EV innovation.
The GM-ANSYS-ESim team’s achievements over the past year include prototyping and validating three electrochemistry modeling approaches. The partners also prototyped a co-simulation…
One reason electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles have hit the market with a thud is that there are strings attached. Models such as the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf are tethered. Drivers need to plug in to recharge the battery.
A number of companies are developing ways to cut the cord, to replenish the battery wirelessly with a mat that sits on the floor. Coils on the underside of the car engage the charger when the car is parked over them. The mats are plugged in while the car isn’t. Automakers and suppliers expect to have the chargers ready for sale around 2015.
Automakers are looking to such vehicles to comply with regulatory pressure to boost mileage and pare emissions.
The future of electric vehicles continues to elude scientists as they attempt to devise promising and practical ideas to keep these cars moving along the highways without having to pull over and wait for a battery recharge. Solutions for the charging and range of electric vehicles took a giant leap forward when a Japanese university team demonstrated how electricity can be transmitted to a pair of tires through a four-inch-thick block of concrete, the type of concrete used on roads.
Their solution is in the form of a wireless power prototype that can successfully transmit electricity through the concrete block. They consider the prototype as an early step to improve on, and that such an approach can be used one…