Comparative investigation of charge-sustaining and fuzzy logic control strategies in parallel hybrid electric vehicles

One of the challenges facing the automotive industry in production of hybrid electric vehicles, is selection of an appropriate drivetrain control strategy. This is very important in order to meet fuel efficiency, emissions and performance concerns. This paper aims at modeling a parallel HEV drivetrain, running under an Indian urban drive cycle. Through the paper a detailed comparison of the two mostly used control strategies for the HEVs is presented. This will provide a fair idea with regards to selection of the control strategy, based on the fuel economy, emissions, acceleration and battery performance of the parallel HEV. Simulation results show that the vehicle with the fuzzy logic control strategy shows better fuel efficiency, emissions, and battery performance. On the other hand, the charge-sustaining control strategy enables the vehicle to accelerate faster.