System allows rapid prototyping of fuel cells

Opal-RT's new solution incorporates software capabilities with hardware level optimisations and multi-processor capability to accurately simulate hybrid fuel cell vehicle power trains in real-time.

Opal-RT Technologies has released a solution for rapid-control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of hybrid fuel cell vehicle power trains.

Hybrid vehicles consist of intricate arrays of power electronic components.

Opal-RT's new solution incorporates software capabilities with hardware level optimisations and multi-processor capability to accurately simulate these complex systems in real-time.

Anticipating the demands of modelling today's hybrid vehicles, in particular very high frequency electronic systems, the new RTLAB JMAG software is optimised for precision motor and drive modelling.

It supports high-fidelity simulation of non-linear phenomena, in the small time steps required for circuit simulation and control testing.

The new RT-LAB XSG makes it possible to simulate models of the motor and the inverter directly on FPGA technology, as opposed to the CPU.

This feature means that simulations now run faster than ever before, at speeds of less than 1us, making it possible to simulate more phenomena in significantly less time.

Finally, these enhancements are fully manifested on Opal-RT's distributed PC-based hardware.

Multi-component drive train systems can be divided and then simulated at the same time, on different, synchronous, processors.

Engineers are effectively able to test the power train as one complete unit, and thereby gain greater insight into the entire system.

Collectively, this integrated solution provides engineers with significant capability to perform rapid-control prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of multiple components of the drive train of a hybrid fuel cell vehicle simultaneously, in real time and with very high fidelity.

"Opal-RT leads with technologies for simulating complex power electronics systems in real time", says Jean Belanger, President, Opal-RT Technologies.

"Our unique solution fills an important gap in the design of motor drives for electric vehicles by greatly improving both the speed of the design process and the accuracy of the motor models that are used in hardware-in-the-loop testing".

Opal-RT will demonstrate the solution for rapid-control-prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of hybrid vehicle fuel cells at SAE World Congress 2007.

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