Vehicle

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9358970-B2
Application number	US-201514694182-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 23, 2015
Priority date	Apr 28, 2014
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A vehicle comprises a rotary electric machine, an inverter and an electronic control unit. The inverter is configured to supply current to the rotary electric machine. The electronic control unit is configured to set a control mode of the inverter to a first mode on a condition that the electronic control unit determines that there is no possibility of occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion. The electronic control unit configured to set the control mode of the inverter to a second mode and maintain output of the rotary electric machine at user request output on a condition that the electronic control unit determines that there is a possibility of occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion. The second mode is a mode in which occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion is further suppressed compared to the first mode.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vehicle comprising:
a rotary electric machine;
an inverter configured to supply current to the rotary electric machine; and
an electronic control unit configured to control the inverter, the electronic control unit configured to determine whether there is a possibility of occurrence of electrolytic corrosion in a peripheral portion of the rotary electric machine, the electronic control unit configured to set a control mode of the inverter to a first mode on a condition that the electronic control unit determines that there is no possibility of occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion, the electronic control unit configured to set the control mode of the inverter to a second mode and maintain output of the rotary electric machine at user request output on a condition that the electronic control unit determines that there is a possibility of occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion, and the second mode being a mode in which occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion is further suppressed compared to the first mode.

2. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the electronic control unit is configured to control the inverter by pulse width modulation control,
the second mode is a mode in which a frequency of a carrier signal is set to a frequency that further suppresses the occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion compared to the first mode and output of the rotary electric machine is maintained at the user request output, and
the carrier signal is used for the pulse width modulation control.

3. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the electronic control unit is configured to estimate strength and stress based on an operation state of the rotary electric machine, the electronic control unit is configured to determine whether there is a possibility of occurrence of the electrolytic corrosion based on an estimated strength and stress,
the strength indicates resistance strength of the peripheral portion against the electrolytic corrosion, and
the stress indicates an electric load applied to the peripheral portion.

4. The vehicle according to claim 1 , wherein
the vehicle is a hybrid vehicle that includes a travel motor and a regenerative generator, and
the rotary electric machine is at least one of the travel motor or the regenerative generator.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Watanabe Masato
• Hiura Yuki

Classifications

• H02K11/24

  Devices for sensing torque, or actuated thereby (H02K11/27 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H02K11/25

  Devices for sensing temperature, or actuated thereby · CPC title

• H02K11/0042

  Electricity · mapped topic

• F04C29/02

  Lubrication (of machines or engines in general F01M); Lubricant separation (separation in general B01D) · CPC title

• B60L11/1803

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic