A Hybrid Physics-Informed ML Framework for Emission and Energy Flow Prediction in a Retrofitted Heavy-Duty Vehicle

This study introduces a physics-informed machine learning framework for predicting transient emissions and energy variables in a retrofitted heavy-duty diesel vehicle. It merges data-driven modeling with physically derived features for reliable real-world analysis. A Random Forest regressor is trained on a public dataset (26 trips from one instrumented vehicle) to predict CO2 and NOx mass rates, exhaust temperature, exhaust mass flow rate, and fuel flow rate from synchronized multi-sensor inputs using past-only, time-lagged features. On held-out trips, exhaust temperature prediction achieves R2 = 0.9997 and RMSE = 0.53 g/s; for CO2, with R2 = 0.9985 and RMSE= 0.38 g/s, comparable performance is reported for NOx, exhaust flow, and fuel rate. The trained model is integrated into a simulation framework to enable the evaluation of alternative operating conditions and powertrain configurations. First, the impact of cold-start versus hot-start operation is assessed, showing cumulative emission penalties of up to +28% for CO2 and +30% for NOx. Second, the effect of hybridization is investigated by comparing the baseline thermal configuration with a hybrid electric architecture, resulting in estimated reductions of −12.2% in CO2 and −10.5% in NOx emissions. This tool excels in high-fidelity emission prediction and system-level energy analysis, aiding advanced powertrain assessments under realistic driving conditions.