Application of Physics-Based Modeling Techniques as a Tool to Help the Development of More Electrified Off-Highway Machinery

Environmental sustainability, greenhouse emissions, and air pollution reduction are among the major drivers for the electrification of the transport and mobility sector. In this regard, industry and academia have started developing electrified solutions for the off-highway industry, but it comes with high development costs. Modeling and simulation can greatly help system-level design but building the mathematical model of an entire machinery is not trivial. In this regard, using physics-based industrial-oriented modeling software like Simscape can simplify it, especially for small niche manufacturers, which usually have lower resources. In this paper, an electrified material handler is modeled using Simscape. The main movements of the machinery are compared with experimental data, and a good match is found for hydraulic pressure and flow. Even if the modeling of other subsystems is needed for more in-depth and accurate analysis, the paper already shows how modern industrial-oriented modeling software can be used to model complex subsystems and to get sensible results. Taking advantage of transient-state system design is indeed key to better assessing energy consumption and getting at a better overall system design, even for small and niche manufacturers.