On the Electrification of the American Muscle Car: An Analysis and Model Based Design

Abstract

This report includes a systematic approach to defining and analyzing an electrified powertrain for use in a modern American muscle car. To provide a background and define the problem the current trends in vehicle electrification will be explored followed by a definition of the American muscle car and its technical requirements. To analyze a variety of powertrains across multiple tests, the model based design approach is used with a custom designed simulation tool. Once the simulation environment is understood multiple simulations and tests are performed on each electrified powertrain defined to gain insights into their behavior and characteristics. Through experimental data and first principals a modeling tool is developed for the specific purpose of powertrain architecture selection. The tool provides many insights, flexible powertrain topologies, and customizable testing procedures. To ensure that the results of the tool are accurate energy balance calculations are performed on each powertrain and a comparison to commercially available software is given. To ensure that the new powertrains are improvements on their respective conventional vehicle counterparts, baseline simulations are completed and compared alongside the electrified vehicle powertrains. A selection matrix is formed to quantitatively compare and selected an appropriate powertrain for an American muscle car and a feasibility study is completed to ensure the design goals are met.