AVL ThermalLab™

Keep Cool, Drive Further.

Testing battery electric vehicles (BEVs) under realistic conditions.

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As mobility becomes increasingly electrified, the development of advanced Vehicle Thermal Management Systems (VTMS) is crucial. Efficient thermal management is essential for optimizing passenger comfort, extending driving range, and ensuring the safety and durability of all powertrain components, including batteries, e-motors, and fuel cells.

Electrified powertrain systems experience a wide range of temperature variations across different components. This variability heightens the complexity of designing an effective thermal management system. An optimized VTMS is key to managing these temperature fluctuations and maintaining peak performance.

The complexity of thermal system design in electrified vehicles underscores the importance of an optimized VTMS. By addressing the specific thermal requirements of various powertrain components, manufacturers can enhance vehicle performance and operational efficiency.

An effective VTMS is crucial for optimizing the energy efficiency of the entire vehicle and extending the lifespan of its powertrain components. However, developing highly efficient VTMS solutions involves extensive calibration and testing, which can lead to increased development costs and extended timelines.

To address these challenges, we introduce the AVL ThermalLab™ — an advanced solution designed to enhance the development process of VTMS. The ThermalLab offers unparalleled flexibility, allowing you to test either the complete VTMS or individual components of the thermal system. It is engineered to streamline the calibration and testing process, enabling faster development cycles and reducing associated costs. By offering the ability to test both complete systems and individual components, AVL ThermalLab™ ensures that your VTMS is optimized for performance and efficiency.

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Enhanced Efficiency

Streamline the development and testing of VTMS components to achieve optimal energy efficiency throughout the vehicle.

Cost Reduction

Reduce development costs by minimizing the need for extensive and expensive testing procedures.

Flexible Testing

Choose between testing the entire VTMS or focusing on specific components, providing tailored solutions for various development needs.

AVL ThermalLab™ for Dynamic System and Component Testing

Our testing methodology is based on highly dynamic conditioning systems, and the entire thermal management system can be tested on the rig under real emulated driving and environmental conditions, independent of vehicle prototypes and weather.

System and Subsystem Testing

Using model-based testing, AVL ThermalLab™ supports you optimize the entire VTMS under dynamic conditions. The UUT is the complete VTMS, including powertrain coolant circuits, the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and thermal management control units. It is embedded in an emulated vehicle while the environment is fully simulated. Unlike costly vehicle testing in wind tunnels or on the road, you can test the entire system in the lab under realistic driving and environmental conditions, without vehicle prototypes and outside weather conditions.

Component Testing

As with the complete thermal system, the model-based testing approach of the AVL ThermalLab™ helps you optimize your thermal components without having the entire VTMS available. Your UUT can be embedded in an emulated vehicle, while a hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) method fully simulates the rest of the thermal system and the environment. This is then optimized in various driving cycles to ensure proper functionality of all subsystems and to pre-calibrate your actuators on the rig.

Testing Scope

Description

  • Fill and degas coolant circuits
  • Fill refrigerant cycles, incl. oil concentration
  • Test performance of the entire VTMS
  • Optimize VTMS control strategy
  • Optimize cabin comfort
  • Develop deicing strategy for refrigerant front heat exchangers
  • Evaluate energy consumption and its influence on driving range
  • UUT is placed in the test plant in the same geometrical position as in the vehicle
  • Suitable for different VTMS and powertrain architectures for all battery electrical passenger vehicles
  • Evaluation of ambient conditions from –25 to +55 °C and different driving cycles or vehicle speed up to maximum driving speed
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Modular Test System Design

Modular test system design enables solutions that accurately reflect customer use cases.

No Prototype Vehicles

No prototype vehicles required for the optimization of the entire VTMS.

Independent Development 

Development is disengaged from weather conditions and regions.

Thorough Analysis

Analysis of the VTMS components and architecture for range and cabin comfort on the testbed.

Flexible Testing

Possibility of testing various VTMS concepts with different propulsion systems.

AVL Conditioning Systems

Gaseous and liquid media have a significant impact on the behavior of the device under test. Conditioning systems bring these media into a selectable and predefined range. Stable environmental conditions are essential to perform tests with high precision and reproducibility. These are conveniently and reliably provided by conditioned media. AVL conditioning systems are characterized by their modular design, their excellent functional expandability, and their compactness, making them mobile and versatile on the testbed.

More on Conditioning Systems

AVL Climatic Chamber

The modular AVL Climatic Chamber simulates a wide range of extreme environmental conditions safely and reliably to deliver a high degree of flexibility while minimizing system downtime. Furthermore, thanks to its unique, application-based design with predefined interfaces, it guarantees fast and easy integration into the existing testbeds.

More on Climatic Chamber

stefan nemec

We provide products, solutions, and systems for thermal and environmental conditioning to enable our customers to develop their products with the highest level of efficiency.”

– Stefan Nemec, Global Business Segment Manager, AVL List GmbH

AVL E-Mobility Testing Solutions – Brochure

Tested and Trusted.

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AVL Thermal Testing Solutions – Brochure

Keep Cool, Drive Further.

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AVL ThermalLab™ – Solution Sheet

Testing battery electric vehicles under realistic conditions.

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Thermal Testing Solutions

A vehicle thermal management system has a significant effect on the energy efficiency of the entire vehicle and the durability of all components in the propulsion system, such as the battery and inverter. Highly efficient systems require extensive calibration and testing time at vehicle level, which has a huge impact on development costs and timing.

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AVL Climatic Chamber

Battery packs, modules and cells, fuel cells, e-motor and e-axle solutions must operate safely and reliably in any environment. This can include extreme temperatures and humidity, which cannot be reproduced on the test track or in real test scenarios on the road. This is why we developed the modular AVL Climate Chamber.

AVL Conditioning Systems
Conditioning Systems

Thermal conditions and environment of Units Under Test have strong impacts on real results in driving. For this reason, the thermal simulation must be as exact as possible – which can be achieved via deployment of high performing media conditioning systems.

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