MBSE-Enabled Electromagnetic–Thermal–Control Co-Simulation for New Energy Vehicle Motor-Drive Systems: Framework, Numerical Evaluation, and Educational Application
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Abstract
Electromagnetic, thermal, and control interactions in new energy vehicle (NEV) motor-drive systems are often modeled and taught as domain-specific problems, which limits requirement traceability and obscures system-level trade-offs. This paper proposes a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)- based virtual co-simulation framework that links vehicle-level requirements with inverter, permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM), field-oriented control, electromagnetic-loss, and cooling models through explicit interfaces and verification metrics. A temperature-dependent PMSM model is coupled with a lumped winding-hotspot thermal network, allowing stator resistance and permanent-magnet flux linkage to feed back into torque production, voltage demand, and loss prediction. Numerical evaluation was performed by comparing the temperature-coupled model with a fixed-parameter model under prescribed speed and load transitions and by examining cooling-path sensitivity. During the 20-s operating cycle, the coupled model predicted a winding-hotspot temperature of 54.31 ◦C and total modeled loss energy of 20.68 kJ, compared with 52.82 ◦C and 19.12 kJ for the fixed-parameter model. A 60-s sensitivity analysis further demonstrated the influence of cooling-path thermal resistance on hotspot temperature and loss accumulation. The framework was embedded in an NEV motor-drive course and assessed through a quasi-experimental cohort comparison. The intervention cohort achieved higher final-examination and overall course scores, whereas the difference in the existing practice-score measure was not statistically significant. Thus, the framework provides a traceable multi-domain co-simulation workflow for NEV motor-drive analysis and preliminary evidence of its educational applicability.
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