ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

Automobile Modeling using Simulink®

ELEC7006 Project 2006
By Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

1. Introduction

This project aims to model and simulate the performance of an automobile with some

arrangements to particular throttle setting, gear selection and external factor (hilly road)

base on the chosen automobile factory specification. The simulation of the model is used to

predict the operation of the car in terms of speed, acceleration, and distance.

Since there were many forces influence the real automobile system, it is very complex

to be modeled, this model only accommodates air force resistance, mass inertia, and hill

force (uphill or downhill) in the simulation. This model also assumes that:

- Engine speed and road speed are proportional (depends on the gears ratio).

- Torque curve cover the full range of engine speed, set the torque from zero to 1000

rpm to flat and make the torque down to zero at maximum engine speed + 100 rpm.

- All engine torque is transferred to the wheel (transmission efficiency = 100%).

- Throttle control gives a fixed percentage of the maximum torque at the particular

engine speed.

- The road is straight.

- There is no slip in the wheel.

- Torque curve is linear.

2. Automobile Data

The car that has been chosen is BMW 550i automatic transmission. Some

characteristics from the factory specification are:

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

2.1. Torque curve

The torque curve for this car

is shown in the figure 1. The

maximum torque is 490 Nm at

the 3400 rpm. I set the torque at

the 0 – 1000 rpm equal to 380

Nm (flat) and the torque at the

maximum engine speed (6500

rpm) is 390 Nm and then drop to

0 Nm at the 6600 rpm. Figure 1. Torque curve

2.2. Transmission

This car is equipped with 6 gear automatic transmission. The gear ratio for each

gear is shown in the table 1.

Table 1. BMW 550i transmission

First gear 4.17

Second gear 2.34
Third gear 1.52
Gear ratio
Fourth gear 1.14
Fifth gear 0.87
Sixth gear 0.69
Final drive ratio 3.38

2.3. Other parameters

Other parameters that will be used in this Simulink® model for BMW 550i are

shown in table 2.

Table 2. BMW 550i parameters

Drag coefficient 0.29

Top speed (mph) 150
Acceleration 0 – 60 mph (sec) 5.5
Tire dimensions 225/50 R17

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

Car weight 3814 lbs (1730 kg)

Driver weight (assumption) 70 kg
Car Height (inch) 57.8
Car width (inch) 72.7

3. Model Description

3.1. Mathematical model.

The first step to build this model, we need to find all the force that influence to the

model. In this model, we need to find the equations of hill force, air (drag) resistance

force, mass inertia force, also the wheel force.

• Mass inertia force (force due to amount of resistance to the velocity change)

(equation 1). The equation is:

Fm = - m.a

Where: m = mass, a = acceleration.

• Air resistance force (force due to air friction) (equation 2). The equation for this

force is:

Fd = - ½.Cd.A.ρ.v2

Where: Cd = drag coefficient, A = projection area

ρ = atmosphere density, v = velocity

• Hill Force (force due to road slope) (equation 3). The equation for this force is

(with theta position as shown in the figure 2):

Fh = - m.g.sin(ө) for up hill slope

Fh = m.g.sin(ө) for down hill slope ө Fh

Where: m = mass Figure 2. Theta position

g = gravitational constant, ө = slope angle

• Wheel force (equation 4):

Fw = T.Gr.FDr / rw

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

Where: T = engine torque, Gr = gear ratio

FDr = final drive ratio, rw = wheel radius

The equation to calculate wheel radius (rw) (equation 5) is:

rw = Rr + H = ((½.Rd) / 2.54 + AR.Tw / 105)

Where: rw = wheel radius in meter, Rr = tire radius,

H = tite sidewall height, Rd = tire diameter,

AR = aspect ratio, Tw = tire width

The sum of these four forces produce net force that will make the automobile

accelerate (move), thus the equation for the acceleration (equation 6) is:

a = v’ = (Fw + Fm + Fd + Fh) / m

Where: a = v’ = acceleration, m = mass

And the equation for velocity (equation 7) is:

v = ∫ a dt = v0 + a.t

Where: v = velocity, v0 = initial velocity

And the equation for displacement (equation 8) is:

D = ∫ v dt = ∫ (v0 + a.t) dt = v0.t + ½.a.t2

Where: D = displacement

And the equation to calculate the engine speed as function of car speed is:

ωs = 60.v. Gr.FDr / 2.π.rw

Where: ωs = engine speed (in rpm)

3.2. Simulink® model.

The Simulink® model for the BMW 550i automatic transmission for this project is

shown in the figure 3:

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

Figure 3. Basic Simulink® model for BMW 550i

Basically, the Basic Simulink® model for BMW 550i is constructed from 7 subsystems,

which are:

1. Gear subsystem.

Calculate the wheel force as

function of engine torque, gear ratio, final

drive ratio and tire radius (represents the

equation 4 at the mathematical model into

the Simulink® model). (See figure 4) Figure 4. Gear subsystem

2. Tire subsystem.

Calculate the tire radius base on the

tire data from the car factory specification.

This car use the 225/50 R17 tire (represents

the equation 5 at the mathematical model

into the Simulink® model). See figure 5. Figure 5. Tire subsystem

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

3. Gear selection.

This subsystem

will select the gear ratio

base on the gear number

input. See figure 6. Figure 6. Gear selection

4. Actual speed subsystem.

This subsystem

calculates the engine speed as

function of current car speed,

gear ratio, final drive ratio

and tire radius. See figure 7. Figure 7. Actual speed subsystem

5. Drag force calculation.

Calculate the drag force as function of

current car speed, car width, car height,

atmosphere density and drag coefficient

(represents the equation 2 at the mathematical

model into the Simulink® model). This model

set the atmosphere density equal to 1.225 (150

C atmosphere temperature). See Figure 8. Figure 8. Drag force calculation

6. Hill force subsystem.

Calculate the hill force as

function of car mass and the hill

slope (represents the equation 3 at

the mathematical model into the

Simulink® model). See figure 9. Figure 9. Hill force subsystem

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

7. Main process.

Calculate the mass

inertia force (equation 1 at

the mathematical model), net

force, car acceleration, car

speed and car displacement.

See figure 10. Figure 10. Main process

This Basic Simulink® model is used to model some of simulations in the full throttle

setting with fixed gear selection. To simulate using throttle percentage between 0 – 100%

to maintain the car speed at the desired value, the throttle percentage value in the throttle

block is changed with a value that has been calculated.

To simulate the optimal gear changes

in order to find time from 0 to 100 km/h

and time to travel 400m (standing start)

on the level ground. The gear selection

subsystem is changed by the automatic

gear selection subsystem. The automatic

gear selection subsystem is shown in the

figure 11. Figure 11. Automatic gear selection

4. Simulations

First thing to do before we do the simulations is input all the parameter as stated in

the table 1 and table 2 to the Simulink® model. We also have to input the torque curve

into the model. In this model, we use look-up table to input the torque curve as function

of car speed. The look-up table value is shown in the table 3.

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

Table 3. Torque curve value as function of car speed

Car speed (rpm) Torque (Nm)

0 380
500 380
1000 380
1500 410
2000 445
2250 460
2500 465
2750 475
3000 482
3400 490
3500 488
4000 485
4500 473
5000 459
5500 450
6000 425
6500 390
6550 195
6600 0

For the optimal gear changes simulation, i must perform gear changes

automatically. To do this, I use look-up table to decide when the gear change as

function of car speed. This look-up table value is shown in the table 4.

Table 4. Car speed as function of gear number.

Car speed Gear number

0 1
57 2
101 3
157 4
207 5
260 6
500 7

The result from the simulation for some simulation is shown in the table 5.

Table 5. Simulations result

Simulation Gear Slope (%) Result

Time from 0 – 40 km/h 1 0 2.15 s

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

Time from 0 – 40 km/h 1 5 2.25 s

Time from 0 – 40 km/h 1 -10 1.95 s
Time from 80 – 100 km/h 4 0 3.9 s
Time from 80 – 100 km/h 4 5 4.5 s
Time from 80 – 100 km/h 4 -10 2.85 s
Time from 0 – 100 km/h 6 0 37 s
Time from 0 – 100 km/h 6 5 56 s
Time from 0 – 100 km/h 6 -10 23 s
Maximum speed 6 0 292.8 m/s
Maximum speed 6 5 254.9 m/s
Maximum speed 6 -10 345.6 m/s
% throttle to maintain 100 km/h 6 0 12%
% throttle to maintain 100 km/h 6 5 40.4%
% throttle to maintain 100 km/h 6 -10 -44.58% (brake)
Time from 0 – 100 km/h Optimal 0 7.15 s
Time to travel 400m optimal 0 15.05 s

All of the graph for the result that presented in the table 5 could be found in the

report appendix.

5. Analysis and Discussion

The results from the simulations show that there are some differences compared

with the factory specification data. These are the list of the differences:

1. Top speed.

The result from simulation gets bigger value (292.8 km/h compared with 250

km/h) than the factory specification. It is happen might be because the factory

test use different types of force that influence the result also this simulation did

not count for several other factors like: transmission lost, clutch slip, wheel slip,

etc.

2. Time from 0 – 100 km/h.

The simulation gets lower result compared with the specification data. It could

be caused by the gear change point is incorrect (the factory setting have better

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ELEC7006-Car modelling Susilo Wibowo (41121216)

gear change point) also because in this simulation did not count for the torque

higher the redline (the torque curve did not show the data).

The simulations found that the hill force (road slope) more significant compared

with other external forces specially for the overdrive gear (gear that have less than 1 gear

ratio) since it will reduce the top speed but for the lower gear, the top speed unchanged

only it take longer time to reach the top speed.

Optimal gear change could be found by plotting the torque versus speed graph for

all the gear ratio in the same graph. Then in the graph will show the crossing point for all

the gear ratio. This crossing point is the best candidate for the optimal gear change.

This model could be improved later so it will perform better and more real by

adding some algorithm/subsystem that could decide the up or down gear change as

function of car speed and the throttle percentage.

6. Reference

1. Dabney, James B. and Harman, Thomas L., Mastering Simulink, Pearson Education

Inc., 2004

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear_ratio

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_equation

4. http://www.rri.se/popup/performancegraphs.php?ChartsID=623

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