Control of motor-assisted shiftings in dedicated hybrid transmissions

Fig. 2: Power-on upshift 1-2

The first gear has an additional kinetic degree of freedom allowing to control a torque hand-over phase before B1 is opened (t₁ to t₂ in Figure 2). This means that B1 is unloaded before it is opened. During this phase an additional power loss is generated as EM1 is switched from motoring to generating and there will be a power flow from EM1 via the inverters to EM2. After that, B1 is opened and the transmission is in the third mode as all shift elements are now open. The target speed of the closing element can now be synchronised using just the E-motors (t₂ to t₃ in Figure 2). After synchronisation the transmittable torque of B2 is increased and E1 is turned off as this shifting ends. Note that no power dissipation due to friction occurred and no pressure control of the shift elements was needed. To evaluate efficiency, the additional loss energy due to circulating powers during the shift has to be compared to the dissipated energy in the shift elements during a conventional power-shift. The underlying control laws can be generated by doing a kinematic and kinetic analysis of the transmission.

However, the power-on upshift can only be realised in the described way, if the EMs have enough capacity left to unload the B1 before it is opened. At very high loads the output power will be reduced for a very short time. During that time B2 can support EM1 to minimize the power interruption at the cost of added dissipated energy. During such a shifting the kinetic energy saved in the EMs, which are rotating at high speeds, is utilised to partly fill the power gap during shifting.