LONGRUN has the aim to get its work on VECTO, especially the Roadmap regulations: upgrading the HD simulation tool and interfaces’ transition to extended VECTO commented on, validated and supported by members of the Advisory Board. This shall include validation of the framework platform and scalability report, LONGRUN simulation platform specifications and architecture design report, Integration of the LCA analysis on the simulation platform with user guide and method descriptions report, and validation of the Roadmap regulations: upgrading the HD simulation tool and interfaces’ transition to extended VECTO. This roadmap is describing the additional elements introduced into the software VECTO, the extensions needed in component testing compared to regulation (EU) 2017/2400 accompanied by the extended VECTO software with user guide and examples for applications and results.
Background / State of the Art
VECTO is the European Commission’s official software tool for declaration of CO2 emissions from heavy duty vehicles according to regulation (EU) 2017/2400. The “VECTO method” is based on measurements of the individual vehicle components, e.g., combustion engine, transmission, air drag, tires rolling resistance coefficients, etc. in a standardised way, and all control strategies and the driver model are simple and generic. This leads to some shortcomings, e.g. CO2 reductions gained by advanced controllers for hybrids, transmission, auxiliaries, cruise control etc. are fully visible when computed through VECTO.
The Main LONGRUN target is to set-up a tool and a methodology in order to evaluate the impact of the technologies developed into LONGRUN project on the CO2 emission in the “VECTO method” frame. Examples of these technologies are:
- Hybrid and/or fully electric Powertrain control strategies;
- Advanced Energy and thermal management systems;
- Waste Heat Recovery systems;
- Technologies related to connected vehicles;
- Advance battery management;
- ECO routing and driving algorithm.
To allow that, a standardised procedure will be developed in order to use other software elements than the official VECTO. The ratio of CO2 emissions with/without the new technology could be estimated and then transferred to base CO2 values calculated by the official VETCO version for all vehicle models where the new technology is applied.
To set up a system to develop and test such an approach, VECTO will be integrated into the “Overall LONGRUN multi scale simulation platform (LMP)”. The LMP, based on a standard commercial backward/forward simulation platform, will integrate its own vehicle dynamics and powertrain models, perform simulations in Real-Time, and communicate with the physical OEM components or with their respective black-box models, allowing the simulation of all HDVs with different software tools, including tools already allowing SIL and adding new components. To allow also the consideration of alternative energy carriers, beside vehicle simulation tools also a software calculating the well to tank GHG emissions will be linked to the simulation platform.
The new software elements elaborated within the project will be implemented towards VECTO simulation tool in a separate development fork to produce the extended version. The official VECTO version remains unchanged by all extensions from the project while all new extensions can be transferred later efficiently to the official version if agreed by the Commission. The simulation methods reviewed and developed in LONGRUN will be adjusted to the demands of the HD CO2 declaration procedure.
Main task is the implementation of SIL functionalities in VECTO to consider OEM specific control strategies for transmission, auxiliaries, hybrid powertrains and predictive cruise control.
Furthermore, technologies applied to vehicles in 2 to 8 which are not yet in VECTO, will be added in the software. The methods and results from VECTO will be validated in a first step by comparison with other models in the LONGRUN simulation platform.
After this first validation, the software shall be used in 2 to 8. Beside the extension of the software, also procedures to validate the results suitable for certification process shall be developed (i.e. they have to be verifiable by authorities).