Impact of Electrical Transients on Functional Safety - A Special Case of Electrification of Conventional Vehicle Platforms 2013-01-1233

The current trend of going “green” in emerging automotive markets is, by the conversion of internal combustion engine based vehicle platforms into electrified vehicle platforms. While this method of electrification reduces the product development life cycle drastically due to the availability of a readymade platform, there are certain areas that are always overlooked. While focus is given on obvious and necessary elements like power train & battery packaging, weight reduction, high voltage safety, thermal management etc., electro-magnetic compatibility is neglected in the conversion process.

This paper shall describe, in detail and in particular, the effect of electrical transients created by legacy elements, already existing in the baseline platform. This is an outcome of electro-magnetic compatibility challenges faced during the conversion of an internal combustion engine powered vehicle into an electric vehicle. Despite electric power train components being robust at the sub-system level, the vehicle's functional safety was challenged on several occasions. Thorough investigations of this sporadic behavior revealed that it was attributed to noise generated out of reactive, legacy components. The experimental findings and results shall present a picture of the sporadic effects of noise, on the functional behavior of the vehicle. While explaining the challenges, emphasis is given on the need to address them at the design level rather than at the fully developed vehicle level.