Fraunhofer Project group for new Drive Systems NAS Fraunhofer Project Group for New Drive Systems NAS Hybrid powertrains / electromobility Design Conventional powertrains Project group NAS Stationary powertrains and heat utilization Testing Simulation Lightweight powertrains
Fraunhofer Project group for New Drive Systems NAS Drive systems for future mobility concepts, as well as energy sovereignty and sustainable energy supplies, are some of the most significant scientific and technological challenges faced by society today. The Fraunhofer Project Group for New Drive Systems consequently aims to advance applied research and pilot-level product development in these areas. Dr.-Ing. Hans-Peter Kollmeier Head of Project Group The development strategy of the Project Group for New Drive Systems is reflected in its four fields of research: Hybrid powertrains and electromobility, conventional powertrains, stationary powertrains and heat utilization as well as lightweight powertrain design. In order to conduct sucessful research within these fields, the NAS draws on internal competence in design, simulation and testing, as well as state-of-the-art software tools and test stands. Within the competence group design, for example, CATIA V5 is used, while Dymola, GT-Power, MatLab Simulink, SIMPACK, Star CCm+ and Ansys facilitate work for the simulation and design teams. Modern in-house test stands are available for the testing of application-oriented concepts. Phone +49 7 21 9150-3811 Fax +49 7 21 9150-38810 hans-peter.kollmeier@ict.fraunhofer.de
Research Areas HYBRID POWERTRAINS AND ELECTROMOBILITY CONVENTIONAL POWERTRAINS The ongoing efforts focus on increasing the range, comfort and usability by optimizing individual components and the entire system. Research activities are divided into the areas of drive trains, batteries, electrics/electronics and thermal management. In order to achieve the project objectives, researchers from each field are working on processes such as trials on HIL test stands, vehicle simulation or the constructive implementation of cooling concepts for power electronics. Legislative requirements regarding the minimization of CO 2 emissions, and the price development of fossil energy sources, are forcing vehicle manufacturers to improve the efficiency of their products and to develop sustainable mobility concepts. Research in the field of conventional powertrains focuses on increasing the efficiency of combustion-engine powertrain concepts and electrified drive train topologies. Our key fields of research are: STATIONARY POWERTRAINS AND HEAT UTILIZATION All research work in these fields aims at the development of innovative heat and power cogeneration units to increase the efficiency of complete combined heat and power plants (CHPs). The main objective is the integration of suitable electric and thermal storage systems to allow an energy supply that is independent of the energy converter. The most promising systems are thermo-chemical storage devices based on zeolite or latent thermal storage devices based on PCM. In close cooperation with the Energetic Systems Department of the Fraunhofer ICT, the entire development chain, from setting the required framework conditions for thermal storage devices, and material characterization, through to the design and construction of thermal storage prototypes, can be covered. In the department s research on powertrains, emphasis is placed on the durability of the energy converter, and on achieving the longest possible maintenance interval. Evaluation of innovative drive train concepts and their components Waste heat recovery Friction minimization Operating and testing strategies LIGHTWEIGHT POWERTRAINS In this field, we focus on possible ways to increase efficiency by reducing the weight of moving and non-moving components in conventional and electrified drive trains for mobile applications. The use of lightweight materials such as lightweight metal, composites and ceramics, and especially the combination of these materials in hybrid constructions, generates a weight advantage over conventional, metal construction methods. Emphasis is placed on projects requiring a material and process-oriented construction of lightweight powertrain components.
Fraunhofer Project group For New Drive Systems NAS Thermal optimization of the cooling circuit of a single-cylinder research engine developed in-house by using numerical flow-structure coupling.
COMPETENCES DESIGN Simulation Researchers in the competence group design work closely together with the teams for simulation and testing to find technical solutions for challenges arising in the various research areas. Each group is responsible for the optimization of existing components and systems, and also the development of completely new, complex systems such as expansion machines for waste heat recovery systems. Developments include prototypes for the validation of new operating principles or layout concepts for thermal energy converters such as turbines or piston engines. Development work is often centered on new materials and manufacturing processes. One research project includes the substitution of metal alloys by high performance composite materials in combustion engine components; in another, the application of selective laser melting (SLM) for the manufacturing of raw parts allows for more creativity in the design and thus for optimized components. We also work on the packaging of electronic components developed in-house for electric powertrains. Various projects also include packaging concepts for entire conventional or electrified vehicle powertrains. In order to ensure the comparability of different samples, safe installations and simple assembly, all test stands and their peripherals are developed and documented virtually in the CAD system. The simulation team works on the modeling and analysis of individual components and entire systems. The task of developing and manufacturing these components and systems is usually very complex and time-consuming. It is therefore important to carry out the development from the initial idea to the finished component with as few corrections as possible. These demands make simulation an essential part of the development process, enabling early identification of potential and weaknesses and the implementation of this knowledge in the development process. Thus simulation makes it possible to verify new constructions while minimizing the testing efforts. In order to assess the behavior of individual components in the system, NAS uses simulation tools for the transfer of heat, material and information, for example Dymola or GT-Suite. The components are modeled physically or on the basis of a map. The tool IPG-CarMaker can conduct a simulation for the entire vehicle. Vehicles can be split into different modular subsystems, and their efficiency can be assessed during driving, which enables the improved consumption of the tested technologies to be calculated in driving cycles. Drive systems include many flow processes with a wide variety of characteristics and physical complexities, for example gas mixture flows during charge conversion in the combustion engine or fluid flows such as those in cooling circuits. For the detailed analysis and assessment of these flows, professional CFD tools such as Ansys Fluent and StarCCM + are used.
Fraunhofer Project group For New Drive Systems NAS Hot gas test stand for the investigation of energy recovery units in the waste gas stream Waste heat recovery Organic Rankine Cycle Exhaust-gas turbocharger Aging investigations Exhaust gas treatment systems The NAS project Construction and commission of a hot gas burner test stand for system analyses of electrified power trains is funded by the EU operational program Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector of Baden-Württemberg. For further information on Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective ERDF please contact the Ministry for the Rural Area and Consumer Protection of Baden-Württemberg or visit www.rwb-efre.baden-wuerttemberg.de.
A clear transition towards lightweight design can be seen in the research and industrial sectors. Materials must be light, solid and temperature-resistant. The research team for simulation contributes to this transition by providing structural analyses enabling the verification and optimization of the component design. Here, the simulation software Ansys Mechanical is used. The Project Group NAS works with technologies that are often highly dynamic. In order to visualize the influence of dynamic effects on the component behavior, multi-body simulations are conducted using the simulation program Simpack. The Project Group NAS also uses testing facilities for mini CHP systems or for the investigation of the urea dosing of SCR exhaust gas treatment systems. In accordance with a method developed at the NAS, customer-representative and time-optimized testing procedures for drive systems are determined based on real driving data, taking all influencing factors into account. Testing In the testing group, various experiments are conducted involving the different fields of research. The measurement results obtained are used to validate simulation models and develop suggestions to improve the construction. For this, cutting-edge testing facilities are available. Complete measurements of multi-cylinder engines of the smaller passenger car size and single-cylinder test engines can be performed on the engine test stand. Its setup allows the integration of additional applications such as waste heat recovery systems into the existing test stand environment. The combustion engine can also be integrated into the simulation environment as a hardware component by a special interface so that the load acting on the engine is more dynamic and realistic. This allows the investigation of various drive topologies. In addition, it is possible to measure the exhaust-gas turbochargers of light and medium-duty vehicles by using a hot gas test stand. Experimental analyses of expanders and steam boilers for ORC-based waste heat recovery systems are also conducted at this stand and at a smaller, mobile hot gas test stand. Possibilities for Collaboration We work with our project partners on pre-competitive development tasks, both in funded projects on a regional, national and international level and in direct bilateral cooperation on a contractual basis. In each context we guarantee the prompt and professional execution of your development tasks. Bilateral contract research Collaboration in publicly-funded projects (federal states, central government, EU) Service in the fields of construction and simulation Service in the fields of testing; system, and component testing Training / consultancy / workshops The special setup of the stand permits investigations on the aging and thermal shock resistance of components such as heat exchange units, pipelines, and exhaust systems.
Fraunhofer Project Group for new drive systems NAS Fraunhofer Project Group for New Drive Systems NAS Rintheimer Querallee 2 76131 Karlsruhe Germany Head of Project Group Dr.-Ing. Hans-Peter Kollmeier Phone +49 721 9150-3811 Fax +49 721 9150-38810 hans-peter.kollmeier@ict.fraunhofer.de www.ict.fraunhofer.de V02.2