FR2998233A3 - Management and control box for electric car, has electric traction motor for driving electric car, where box jointly manages power and control of electric traction motor, and power and control of electric braking motor - Google Patents

Abstract

The box (1) has a traction battery (10) and an electric traction motor (20) for driving an electric car, where the box is jointly manages the power and control of the electric traction motor, and the power and control of an electric braking motor (30a) driving a pump (30) supplying a braking circuit of the car. A DC/AC converter (21) manages the power output from the traction battery, and controls the electric traction motor. Another DC/AC converter (31) manages the power output from the traction battery, and controls the electrical braking motor.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present disclosure relates to a management and control box for an electric vehicle comprising a traction battery and an electric traction motor driving said vehicle as well as such an electric vehicle. Such a housing can be loaded on board any type of vehicle and especially cars, buses or road vehicles, to jointly ensure, in a single compact member, power management and control of the vehicle engine and auxiliary bodies of the vehicle.

STATE OF THE PRIOR ART For several years, following the continuous rise in the cost of hydrocarbons, electric propulsion technologies have appeared in the automotive field and have progressed rapidly in order to replace traditional heat engines. These technologies have already reached a first level of maturity that has allowed the commercialization of commercial vehicles, especially for municipalities such as road or urban buses, but also all-electric passenger vehicles. However, the disappearance of the heat engine has led to the need to review the whole issue of energy conversion in vehicles and to review in particular most of the auxiliary bodies that were previously fed from the energy produced by the engine: therefore, bodies such as the brake circuit assist pump, power steering or air conditioning have also been converted to electric technologies. However, this multiplication of the electrical components of the vehicle has resulted in a drastic complexification of the electrical architecture of the vehicle with the need to provide many power conversion and control devices adapted to each electrical component of the vehicle. This has taken the form of a complex network, sometimes erratic, cables, converters and other electronic components distributed in multiple locations of the vehicle, all coupled with a network of command and communication also branched throughout the vehicle.

It is understandable that the design of such an architecture is thorny: such a network indeed requires many free spaces to accommodate these components as well as multiple cable passages. It also causes significant production costs because, firstly, the large amount of equipment required, including cables, and secondly, assembly difficulties caused. In addition, the complexity and scale of such an architecture leads to tedious and therefore expensive maintenance.

There is therefore a real need for a management and control architecture for an electric vehicle that is devoid, at least in part, of the disadvantages inherent in the aforementioned known architectures. PRESENTATION OF THE INVENTION The present disclosure relates to a management and control box for an electric vehicle comprising a traction battery and an electric traction motor driving said vehicle; this box is configured to jointly manage the power and the control of the electric traction motor on the one hand, and the power management and the control of an electric brake motor driving a pump supplying the vehicle braking circuit. 'somewhere else. In this disclosure, the term "traction battery" means a high capacity electric storage battery with a high voltage intended to provide the electrical power necessary to supply the traction motor of the vehicle. Thus, typically, it may be a battery consisting of several modules to provide a voltage of the order of 640V DC with a capacity of several tens of kWh for driving the vehicle on at least 80 km. This traction battery also makes it possible to supply auxiliary electrical components of the vehicle, such as the brake circuit assistance pump and steering, which require high electrical power. In addition, in this presentation, the terms "traction battery" and "electric traction motor" are used without prejudging the type of transmission used: thus, this statement applies equally to the 35 vehicles whose front wheels are the front wheels. , rear or all of the wheels of the vehicle.

Thus, in such a management and control box are combined all the functions for supplying and controlling both the traction motor and the auxiliary members. The electrical architecture of the vehicle is therefore particularly simple since these functions necessary for the operation of the main electrical organs of high power of the vehicle are concentrated in a single member, the housing, which is provided between the traction battery on the one hand and the traction motor and the auxiliaries on the other hand. The design and production of such an architecture is therefore easy since, very compact, its impact on the rest of the vehicle architecture is minimal: the production of such a housing can even be subcontracted to a specialist in vehicle technologies. electrical power, the housing can be assembled at the last moment, or at any other convenient time in the assembly schedule of the vehicle, simply by connecting the housing to the organs it feeds or that it controls. The control and control of the electrical architecture and electrical components of the vehicle is also direct and easy since the housing concentrates the control of the main organs of the vehicle: the number of channels and communication cables between the housing and the passenger compartment , and therefore the driver, can also be very reduced. In addition, maintenance of the electrical architecture of the vehicle is also very easy since the technician must intervene in one place, the latter being preferably chosen to be easily accessible, under the hood for example. In addition, it is even possible to avoid immobilization of the vehicle by providing replacement boxes that simply replace the defective housing, the latter then being repaired in the workshop in the absence of the vehicle. Thus, such a housing provides significant gains in terms of flexibility, operability, and reliability but also in terms of volume and mass saved resulting in economic gains throughout the life of the vehicle, from its conception to its maintenance in operations. In some embodiments, the housing is configured to further provide power management and control of an auxiliary electrical component of the vehicle. It is thus possible to focus even more the architecture of the vehicle and thus to further improve its compactness with all the benefits that flow therefrom as described above. In some embodiments, the housing is configured to provide power management and control of an electrical steering motor driving a vehicle steering power unit. Here again, the electric architecture of the vehicle becomes more compact improving the advantages described above. In some embodiments, the housing is configured to provide power management and control of an electric air conditioning motor driving the air conditioner of the vehicle. Since the air-conditioning of an electric vehicle is a device that consumes a great deal of electrical power, ensuring its power management and control together with other electrical components, and in particular the traction motor, allows significant gains in the various plans mentioned above. above. The motor supply current can be single-phase or three-phase depending on the type of motor. The type of command may be scalar, U / f control for example, vector or any other type known and adapted to the engine and the desired use. In addition, if the engine considered is a DC motor, the converter is of the DC / DC type to lower, or possibly raise, the voltage of the traction battery in a voltage range adapted to the motor, and the drive, from preferably a chopper, allows control of the motor supply voltage and thus to control the motor.

In some embodiments, the housing includes a DC / AC converter for managing power from the traction battery and controlling the electric steering motor. In some embodiments, the housing includes a DC / AC converter for managing power from the traction battery and controlling the electric air conditioning motor. In some embodiments, a converter is common to a plurality of electrical components of the vehicle. Such a pooling is possible if the voltage ranges required by these different bodies are compatible: it further reduces the number of components and gain compactness.

In some embodiments, the housing is configured to recover braking energy produced by the electric traction motor during decelerations of the vehicle and convert that braking energy to recharge the traction battery.

In some embodiments, the housing is configured to handle recharging of the traction battery and perform the power conversation necessary for recharging when the vehicle is connected to an external power grid. For this purpose, the housing may contain a charger including a rectifier. Thus, an external adapter charger is useless. In some embodiments, the traction battery includes a plurality of battery modules and the housing selectively distributes the load between the battery modules when the vehicle is connected to the external power grid.

In some embodiments, the housing is configured to further provide two-way communication of information between the vehicle and the user, the transfer of information between the housing and the vehicle equipment being realized using a BUS. CAN. In addition to the electrical architecture, the communication architecture of the vehicle is also concentrated in the case: it requires the deployment of only one bus, and therefore a small number of cables, in the vehicle chassis for control and supervise the equipment of the vehicle, the communication with the passenger compartment and the driver being centralized at the housing level.

In some embodiments, the housing is configured to further control a robotized gearbox of the vehicle. For this purpose, the housing may contain an electronic control card of the gearbox. In some embodiments, the housing is configured to further provide power to an on-board vehicle battery whose voltage is lower than the voltage of the traction battery. This battery corresponds to the traditional batteries of the thermal vehicles and allows the supply of the equipment of the vehicle requiring a smaller electrical power such as, for example, the car radio, the lighting or the wipers. To this end, the housing can contain a DC / DC converter, including a chopper, to lower the voltage of the traction battery to that of the battery board. In some embodiments, the housing has high voltage alternating current electrical outputs, preferably 400V AC, and / or low voltage direct current, preferably 12 or 24V DC. In some embodiments, the housing is provided with an electric vehicle heating system. Such an electric heating system can be supplied with electric current from the traction battery via a DC / DC converter, this DC / DC converter being able to be independent or common to other functions of the housing. In some embodiments, the housing is provided with a liquid cooling system. Since the housing concentrates a large number of electronic power components, it generates a large amount of heat that the liquid cooling allows to evacuate easily. Thanks to the great compactness of this architecture, this liquid cooling is very easy to design and set up. In some embodiments, the pump and the radiator of the liquid cooling system are contained in the housing. In some embodiments, the housing shares its liquid cooling circuit with the electric traction motor. In some embodiments, the housing is contained in a closed housing provided with cable passages or connectors for connecting the housing to the aforementioned bodies of the vehicle. The casing thus appears as a fully integrated black box that can be easily handled by a technician even if not a specialist in electrical technology. In addition, this provides a clean and aesthetic finish to the case that fits harmoniously under the hood of the vehicle, giving a strong image of quality for the user. The present disclosure also relates to an electric vehicle comprising a traction battery and an electric motor as well as a management and control box according to any one of the preceding embodiments. The foregoing and other features and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the housing and the proposed vehicle. This detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings are schematic and are intended primarily to illustrate the principles of the invention. FIG 1 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of a housing according to the invention and its environment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENT (S) In order to make the invention more concrete, an example of a management and control box and a vehicle is described in detail below, with reference to the appended drawings. It is recalled that the invention is not limited to this example.

FIG 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a management and control box 1 and the surrounding vehicle bodies. The vehicle comprises a traction battery 10 comprising for example 48 lithium-ion modules for a total charge of 42 kWh, which corresponds to a range of about a hundred kilometers. It is configured to present at its terminals a voltage of 640V DC. This traction battery 10 is recharged by connecting the vehicle to an external network 11 three-phase 400V AC through a connector 12. To do this, the housing 1 comprises a charger 13 forming an interface between the external network 11 and the traction battery 10 This charger 13 comprises in particular a rectifier converting the three-phase voltage from the external network 11 into a DC voltage measured at 640V DC corresponding to the voltage of the traction battery 10. In addition, the charger 13 distributes the charge supplied by the external network 11 between the different modules of the traction battery 10 and optimizes this distribution based, in particular, their current load. The vehicle then comprises a traction motor 20 providing a traction torque taken up by a gearbox 70 and transmitted to the drive wheels to drive the vehicle. The driving wheels can be indifferently the front wheels, the rear wheels, all the wheels or a symmetrical subset of wheels. In another exemplary embodiment, the vehicle could comprise several traction motors each directly driving a driving wheel. The traction motor 20 is an asynchronous motor supplied with three-phase voltage 400V AC and developing a torque of 270Nm. To supply this traction motor 20, the housing 1 comprises a first converter DC / AC 21 of the inverter type for converting and lowering the DC voltage 640V DC from the traction battery 10 to a three-phase voltage 400V AC adapted to the motor 20. The control of the first converter 21 may be a vector control for finely controlling the torque and the speed of the traction motor 20 and thus the dynamics of the vehicle. In this exemplary embodiment, the converter 21 is reversible so that, during the decelerating phases of the vehicle, it is possible to recover the electrical braking energy produced by the traction motor 20 which then behaves as a generator: In particular, the converter 21 then behaves as an AC / DC converter for rectifying the voltage from the traction motor 20 and raising it to a DC voltage of 640V DC to recharge the traction battery 10.

The vehicle also includes a vacuum pump 30 necessary for the operation of the vehicle braking system. It is driven by an asynchronous braking motor 30a of 0.5kW supplied with three-phase voltage 400V AC. To supply this braking motor 30a, the housing 1 comprises a second DC / AC converter 31 of the inverter type for converting and lowering the DC voltage 640V DC coming from the traction battery 10 to a three-phase voltage 400V AC adapted to the motor. braking 30a. The control of the second converter 31 can be of the U / F type, the rotation speed of the braking motor 30 can be adjusted according to the level of depression obtained in order to optimize consumption. The vehicle also comprises a hydraulic unit 40 necessary for the operation of the power steering of the vehicle. It is driven by a 2 kW asynchronous direction motor 40a powered by three-phase voltage 400V AC. To power this steering motor 40a, the housing 1 comprises a third DC / AC converter 41 of the inverter type for converting and lowering the DC voltage DC from the traction battery 10 to a DC converter. three-phase voltage 400V AC adapted to the steering motor 40a. The control of the third converter 41 may be of the U / F type, the rotational speed of the steering motor 40a being adjustable according to the speed of the vehicle to optimize consumption. The vehicle also includes an air conditioner 50 for the air conditioning of the passenger compartment of the vehicle. It operates using an asynchronous cooling motor 50a of 3 kW type supplied with three-phase voltage 400V AC. To power this air conditioning motor 50a, the housing 1 includes a fourth DC / AC converter 51 of the inverter type for converting and lowering the DC voltage 640V DC from the traction battery 10 to a three-phase voltage 400V AC adapted to the 50a air conditioning engine. The control of the fourth converter 51 may be of the U / F type, the rotational speed of the air conditioning motor 50 being adjustable to optimize consumption. Using one of these DC / AC converters 21, 31, 41 or 51, the housing 1 can also provide 400V AC auxiliary outputs for other high power equipment of the vehicle. In addition, the vehicle comprises an onboard battery 60, separate from the traction battery 10. This battery board 60 has at its terminals a voltage of 12V DC: it allows to power the equipment of the vehicle requiring a lower electrical power : car radio, lights, wipers etc. This on-board battery 60 is recharged by means of the traction battery 10. For this purpose, the housing 1 comprises a DC / DC converter 61 of the chopper type which lowers the DC voltage 640V DC coming from the traction battery 10 to provide a DC voltage DC 12V adapted to the on-board battery 60. With this DC / DC converter 61, the housing 1 can also provide 12V DC auxiliary outputs for other low power equipment of the vehicle. In particular, this converter 61, or possibly another dedicated DC / DC converter, can supply an electric heating system for heating the passenger compartment of the vehicle. In this embodiment, the vehicle gearbox 70 is a robotic gearbox having 6 gears. The management and control box 1 then includes a gearbox control card 71 for controlling the robotic gearbox 70 to pass the various reports. In addition, the vehicle comprises a number of equipment and sensors 80 monitoring certain variables of the vehicle and its organs. These may include temperature sensors, vehicle speed sensors or battery charge level. To acquire the data from these devices and communicate with them if necessary, the box 1 comprises a supervision module 81 exchanging information with the equipment 80 through a CAN bus (Controller Area Network) 82. By this same bus, the Case 1 also transmits all centralized supervision and diagnostic information by the supervision module 81 to displays and indicators of the dashboard 90, intended for the driver. This communication channel 82 also makes it possible to transmit to the management and control box 1 the driving instructions given by the driver using the pedals, the shift lever and the other controls of the dashboard 90. this subject that this communication channel 82 may include, in addition to or instead of the CAN bus, input / output cables of logic or analog type, for example. Finally, the management and control unit 1 is provided with a liquid cooling circuit 100: a circulation of liquid, eg glycol water, is thus provided in contact with the various power components of the housing in order to cool, the coolant being itself cooled during its passage through a radiator. The pump and the radiator of the liquid cooling circuit 100 may be external or included in the housing 1 itself. In addition, the liquid cooling circuit 100 can also flow in contact with the traction motor 20 to cool it as well. Externally, the management and control box 1 is in the form of a black box enclosed in a housing 2 provided with connectors or cable passages 3 for connection to the vehicle members with which it interacts. Thus, the management and control unit 1 can be manufactured and supplied, ready to use, separately from the chassis: during the design of the vehicle, it is sufficient to provide in the chassis a housing to accommodate the housing and, when the assembly, to fix the housing 1 in this housing and to carry out its wiring with the organs of the vehicle.

Depending on the characteristics of the vehicle that one wishes to equip, and in particular the power of its traction motor 20, it is possible to design other embodiments of the management and control unit 1 adapted to these other ranges of power. For example, for heavier road vehicles with equipment consuming more energy than a passenger car, it is possible to provide a DC / DC converter lowering the voltage of the traction battery at 24V DC instead of 12V DC. The power electronics of the various housing components and the cooling circuit are also resized to support higher power levels. It is thus possible to design a range of several models of management and control boxes 1 ready-to-use adaptable to different types of vehicles. The modes or examples of embodiment described in the present description are given for illustrative and not limiting, a person skilled in the art can easily, in view of this presentation, modify these modes or embodiments, or consider others, while remaining within the scope of the invention. In addition, the various features of these modes or embodiments can be used alone or be combined with each other. When combined, these features may be as described above or differently, the invention not being limited to the specific combinations described herein. In particular, unless otherwise specified, a characteristic described in connection with a mode or example of embodiment may be applied in a similar manner to another embodiment or embodiment.

Claims (13)

REVENDICATIONS1. A management and control unit for an electric vehicle comprising a traction battery (10) and an electric traction motor (20) driving said vehicle, characterized in that it is configured to jointly provide power management and control of the vehicle. electric traction motor (20) on the one hand, and the power management and control of an electric brake motor (30a) driving a pump (30) supplying the brake circuit of the vehicle on the other hand. 2. Housing according to claim 1, characterized in that it is configured to further provide power management and control of an auxiliary electrical body of the vehicle (40a, 50a). 3. Housing according to claim 2, characterized in that it is configured to provide power management and control of an electric air conditioning motor (50a) driving an air conditioner (50) of the vehicle. Housing according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that it is configured to provide power management and control of an electric steering motor (40a) driving a steering assistance hydraulic unit (40). of the vehicle. 5. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it comprises a DC / AC converter (21) for managing the power from the traction battery (10) and control the electric traction motor 30 (20) and a DC / AC converter (31) for managing power from the traction battery (10) and controlling the electric brake motor (30a). 6. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it is configured to recover the braking energy produced by the electric traction motor (20) during decelerations of the vehicle and convert the braking energy to recharge the traction battery (10). 7. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it is configured to manage the recharging of the traction battery (10) and perform the power conversation necessary for recharging when the vehicle is connected to an external electrical network (11). 8. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that it is configured to further ensure the two-way communication of information between the vehicle and the user, the transfer of information between the housing (1) and the vehicle members (80) being made using a CAN BUS (82). 9. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it is configured to further ensure the control of a robotized gearbox (70) of the vehicle. 20 10. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that it is configured to further provide power to an onboard battery (60) of the vehicle whose voltage is lower than the voltage of the vehicle. traction battery (10). 25 11. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that it is provided with a liquid cooling system (100). 12. Housing according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that it is contained in a closed housing (2) provided with cable passages or connectors (3) for connecting the housing (1) to the organs mentioned of the vehicle. 13. Electric vehicle comprising a traction battery (10) and an electric motor (20), characterized in that it comprises a management and control box (1) according to any one of the preceding claims.