Novel Approach to Ensure Safe Power Supply for Safety-Relevant Consumers

The 12 V powernet in vehicles must fulfill certain safety requirements due to the safety demand of consumers. A potential risk is undervoltage for a safety-relevant consumer, which leads to its fault. Therefore, a novel approach is presented in this study, which can predict the minimum terminal voltage for consumers. This consists of diagnostics of the wiring harness and of the lead-acid battery as well as predefined consumer currents. Using simulation, first the beginning of a drive cycle is simulated to determine the state of the powernet, and afterwards a critical driving maneuver is simulated to validate the predicted minimum terminal voltage. It demonstrates that the novel approach is able to predict a fault due to undervoltage. In addition to fulfilling safety requirements, the novel approach could be used to achieve additional availability and miniaturization of powernet components compared to the state of the art.