Powertrain development consultancy Cambustion has unveiled a new Powertrain in the Loop (PiL) testing platform for automotive OEMs.
Following the completion of a 12-month test programme, the testing platform is now available at the company’s Hub Dyno facility in Cambridge, UK.
The PiL technology allows manufacturers to model and simulate vehicle systems before physical hardware is available. This means that powertrain testing and validation can begin at a very early stage, before the chassis and other vehicle subsystems are available and before a full prototype vehicle has been built. This enables OEMs to shorten the development cycle of their vehicles and reduce time to market.
The platform allows manufacturers to simulate a vehicle’s electronic hardware components, including steering, brakes, fuel tank and battery modules. Onboard safety and fault diagnostics (OBD) can also be validated to debug interactions between systems.
“Our Powertrain in the Loop system provides an efficient way to accelerate vehicle development within compressed timelines,” said Bruce Campbell, director of Cambustion. “The technology allows us to understand how each subsystem will perform and interact before vehicle build and gives manufacturers confidence that components will integrate and communicate as intended.”
The new facility offers extensive emissions assessment, calibration development and validation before the vehicle is available, enabling manufacturers to optimise emissions control and performance early in the development cycle.
Customers of Cambustion’s EV powertrain group, CamMotive, can use the same technology to assess and develop high-voltage systems including electric drive. In this case, a 1100V/500kW battery simulator is used to validate systems such as electric range and fault diagnosis.
For powertrains already integrated into a vehicle chassis, testing can be carried out by connecting directly to the wheel hubs. High-performance dynamometers consistently reproduce highly transient conditions to test a range of elements from legislative drive cycles to advanced vehicle dynamic controls such as torque vectoring.
The temperature-controlled test cell allows testing to be performed under a range of environmental conditions and at temperatures down to -15°C to simulate real-world and worst-case road conditions.
“In this way, attributes can be signed off, systems debugged and optimised, and manufacturers are able to build the vehicle in parallel with confidence,” Campbell added.
“Once a prototype vehicle is available, development can continue using our 4WD Chassis Dyno, or alternatively Hub Dyno PiL testing can continue in parallel with vehicle testing. In our recent hybrid supercar development programme, Hub Dyno testing proved to be such a versatile and valuable assessment platform that our customer opted to continue these alongside vehicle tests.”
