Techniques to regulate charging with an alternator and a battery to minimize vehicle fuel consumption

• Main Authors: Patil, Nikhil, Milligan, Paul, Alsharif, Arab, Saha, Joydip, Giese, Geoffrey, Pedro, David R, Hamilton, Travis T, Khaja, Basil M, Machamada Somaiah, Ganapathy, Adams, Joseph B
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.05.2022
• Subjects: CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONTROL OR REGULATION OF ELECTRIC MOTORS, ELECTRIC GENERATORSOR DYNAMO-ELECTRIC CONVERTERS; CONTROLLING TRANSFORMERS, REACTORS OR CHOKE COILS; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY; TRANSPORTING; VEHICLES IN GENERAL; VEHICLES, VEHICLE FITTINGS, OR VEHICLE PARTS, NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR

Charging control techniques for a vehicle including an engine that drives an alternator configured to charge a battery of the vehicle comprise modeling a fuel consumption of the alternator for each load level across a range of alternator loads using an engine torque model and a set of operating parameters of the engine, determining an energy output from the alternator for each load level across the range of alternator loads, calculating a cost-to-charge metric based on the modeled alternator fuel consumption and the determined alternator energy output for each duty cycle across a range of duty cycles of the alternator, determining an optimal cost-to-charge from the calculated cost-to-charge metrics, determining a target cost-to-charge metric based on a state of charge of the battery, and operating the alternator accordingly at an optimal duty cycle based on the metrics and current engine operating conditions.