Energy Efficiency Optimization for Electric Vehicles with multi-functional Heat Pump

Efficient thermal management in Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) is crucial for further improvements in driving range. For this purpose, high-functional thermal management systems typically include a fully integrated, multi-functional heat pump that can operate in various modes. The corresponding control systems are getting more and more complex and therefore, unlocking the full potential of these systems necessitates the development of efficient control design methods. This work shows an efficient way how to speed up the optimization task in thermal management systems using control-oriented data-based models which are derived from a detailed simulation environment. Since we do not rely on physics this approach is applicable for all operation modes and shows great potential for automation. The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated by means of a representative air-to-air heat pump operation mode.