Methods for advancing automobile research with energy-use simulation
Date
2014
Authors
Geller, Benjamin M., author
Bradley, Thomas H., advisor
Marchese, Anthony J., committee member
Olsen, Daniel B., committee member
Young, Peter M., committee member
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Abstract
Personal transportation has a large and increasing impact on people, society, and the environment globally. Computational energy-use simulation is becoming a key tool for automotive research and development in designing efficient, sustainable, and consumer acceptable personal transportation systems. Historically, research in personal transportation system design has not been held to the same standards as other scientific fields in that classical experimental design concepts have not been followed in practice. Instead, transportation researchers have built their analyses around available automotive simulation tools, but conventional automotive simulation tools are not well-equipped to answer system-level questions regarding transportation system design, environmental impacts, and policy analysis. The proposed work in this dissertation aims to provide a means for applying more relevant simulation and analysis tools to these system-level research questions. First, I describe the objectives and requirements of vehicle energy-use simulation and design research, and the tools that have been used to execute this research. Next this dissertation develops a toolset for constructing system-level design studies with structured investigations and defensible hypothesis testing. The roles of experimental design, optimization, concept of operations, decision support, and uncertainty are defined for the application of automotive energy simulation and system design studies. The results of this work are a suite of computational design and analysis tools that can serve to hold automotive research to the same standard as other scientific fields while providing the tools necessary to complete defensible and objective design studies.
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Subject
automotive
hybrid
plug-in
simulation
systems
vehicle