Quantification of regenerative braking energy in a two-wheeler incorporating various duty cycles

Abstract

With a massive leap of increment in overall energy efficiency through the paradigm shift from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs), people have evolved their ways to make the transition towards sustainable transportation. Regenerative braking in the automobiles is considered as one of the efficient ways to recover the energy wasted during braking of a vehicle. It is also a practical approach for EVs to extend their driving range. The energy accumulated due to regenerative braking heavily depends on the driving style and traffic conditions. There is much research done in the past related to regenerative braking but inculcation of driving style and traffic conditions in the quantification of energy is limited. The originality of this study is to determine if the regenerative braking is effective for an electric vehicle over a particular duty cycle. This work presents a physical data acquisition setup, which consists of various sensors, data recorders, and micro-controllers that acquire the driving data like velocities at different instances, coasting distance and duration from the vehicle. This work also proposes a mathematical model that uses the acquired data to quantify the amount of energy generated over a duty cycle in a particular electric vehicle. Currently, a two-wheeler electric bike is considered for the quantification of regenerated braking energy over various duty cycles viz. urban, semi-urban, and highway driving. The physical setup and the process of quantification can be extended to various electric vehicles to quantify the regenerative braking energy over different duty cycles. A different approach of energy conservation method is demonstrated for the development of the mathematical model to accurately quantify the regenerated braking energy. This work also focuses on the comparison of energy generated due to regenerative braking between a two-wheeler electric and internal combustion vehicle.