The climatic-altitude chamber as development and validation tool

Two major trends can be identified for powertrain control in the next decade. The legislation will more and more focus on in-use emissions. Together with the global trend to reduce the CO 2 emissions, this will lead to an integral drive train approach. To develop and validate this integral drive train approach, the need for a new chapter in powertrain testing arises. The climatic-altitude chamber, suited for heavy vehicles, serves a wide variety of testing needs. Ambient temperature can be controlled between â45 °C and +55 °C and ambient pressure can be reduced up to a level found at an altitude to 4000 meters. The chamber's dynamometers enable transient testing of heavy-duty engines and vehicles and the chamber is equipped with a comprehensive array of emission measurement capabilities, working under extreme conditions. With the final design of the chamber, three types of powertrain test set-ups are possible: Engine tests Engine in vehicle tests (engine speed versus torque cycles, e.g. WHTC simulation) Vehicle tests for road and non-road applications (real-world emission and performance) By testing the complete vehicle under varying ambient conditions, the interactions between subsystems can be studied and the robustness of products can be enhanced. With this tool, development, pre-calibration and performance evaluation of powertrain control systems is performed in a reliable and efficient test environment. To deal with the increasing complexity of powertrains and optimize overall performance, model-based control will become the standard in the coming decade. In that case, advanced models that accurately predict the powertrain performance under real-life conditions can be developed and validated using this facility. The availability of accurate models opens the route to model-based calibration and advanced diagnostics and optimal control based on models embedded in the controller. Copyright © 2010 SAE International.