Reliability investigation of electric vehicle

摘要

Investigation of reliability is of vital importance to design, implement and manage the operation of vehicles. This can be used as an important tool for the proper design and control of vehicles. The main components of the electric vehicle (EV) are the batteries and the electric drive. This paper focuses on the reliability aspects of the lead acid battery, motor controller and electric motor employed for the operation of electric vehicles. Battery is the most important and also the least reliable component in EV, which has a crucial effect on the reliability and cost of EV. The heat generation model, the methods of cooling and air flow in the battery are investigated. This paper presents the simulation model using MATLAB/SIMULINK for analyzing the reliability of electric vehicles. The model takes into account the variation of driving cycles, thermal stress, thermal cycling and fault analysis. This model is discussed in detail and the result of reliability estimation based on an electric vehicle is presented and analyzed. The results are verified experimentally with the working model of electric vehicle available in the laboratory. With this model and analysis, more accurate reliability prediction can be carried out by the designer.