INDEPENDE

NT
STUDY
SEMINAR
 A
SEMINAR REPORT
ON
“REGENRATIVE BRAKES”
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR IN TECHNOLOGY

IN

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

SUBMITTED BY:

RAVI KUMAR(07-ME-440)

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

 GURGAON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND
MANAGEMENT
BILASPUR, GURGAON
2010-2011

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the seminar entitled “regenerative

brakes” has been submitted by Ravi Kumar ( 07-ME-440), for
the partial fulfilment of the degree of bachelor of technology in
mechanical engineering from gurgaon institute of technology
and management, gurgaon. Affiliated to the maharishi
dayanand university, rohtak, during the academic session
2010-2011( 8th semester).

Date:12th april 2011

Place: Bilaspur , Gurgaon

Department of mechanical engineering

Gurgaon institute of technology and management

 DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the work presented

here in this seminar report submitted to the
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Gurgaon Institute of Technology &
Management, Gurgaon, is an authentic
record of my own work.

Name: Ravi kumar

Roll No.: 07-ME-440

Branch: Mechanical

Semester: 8th
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Mr.

R.K.Gupta for his valuable guidance and co-operation
at every step of the project, without which, it would not
have been possible for me to explore this subject.

I pay a vote of thanks to our faculty Mr.Bharat

Bhushan and Mr.Imran Siraj for providing
necessary facilities, support, motivation and
understanding enabling me to understand the subject
deeply, throughout the process of this study.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the

organization and each & everyone of you from the core
of my heart for all the support and encouragement
extended to me to learn, grow and contribute in this
organization.
Regenerative brakes
A regenerative brake is an energy recovery mechanism
which slows a vehicle by converting its kinetic energy into
another form, which can be either used immediately or stored
until needed. This contrasts with conventional braking systems,
where the excess kinetic energy is converted to heat by friction
in the brake linings and therefore wasted.
The most common form of regenerative brake involves using
an electric motor as an electric generator. In electric railways
the generated electricity is fed back into the supply system,
whereas in battery electric and hybrid electric vehicles, the
energy is stored in a battery or bank of capacitors for later use.
Energy may also be stored via pneumatics, hydraulics or the
kinetic energy of a rotating flywheel.
Every time you step on your car's brakes, you're wasting
energy. Physics tells us that energy cannot be destroyed. So
when your car slows down, the kinetic energy that was
propelling it forward has to go somewhere. Most of it simply
dissipates as heat and becomes useless. That energy, which
could have been used to do work, is essentially wasted. Is
there anything that you, the driver, can do to stop wasting this
energy? Not really. In most cars it's the inevitable by product of
braking and there's no way you can drive a car without
occasionally hitting the brakes. But automotive engineers have
given this problem a lot of thought and have come up with a
kind of braking system that can recapture much of the car's
kinetic energy and convert it into electricity, so that it can be
used to recharge the car's batteries. This system is called
regenerative braking.
At present, these kinds of brakes are primarily found in hybrid
vehicles like the Toyota Prius, and in fully electric cars, like the
Tesla Roadster. In vehicles like these, keeping the battery
charged is of considerable importance. However, the
technology was first used in trolley cars and has subsequently
found its way into such unlikely places as electric bicycles and
even Formula One race cars.
 A traditional braking system, brake pads produce friction with
the brake rotors to slow or stop the vehicle. Additional friction
is produced between the slowed wheels and the surface of the
road. This friction is what turns the car's kinetic energy into
heat. With regenerative brakes, on the other hand, the system
that drives the vehicle does the majority of the braking. When
the driver steps on the brake pedal of an electric or hybrid
vehicle, these types of brakes put the vehicle's electric motor
into reverse mode, causing it to run backwards, thus slowing
the car's wheels. While running backwards, the motor also acts
as an electric generator, producing electricity that's then fed
into the vehicle's batteries. These types of brakes work better
at certain speeds than at others. In fact, they're most effective
in stop-and-go driving situations. However, hybrids and fully
electric cars also have friction brakes, as a kind of back-up
system in situations where regenerative braking simply won't
supply enough stopping power. In these instances, it’s
important for drivers to be aware of the fact that the brake
pedal might respond differently to pressure. The pedal will
sometimes depress farther towards the floor than it normally
does and this sensation can cause momentary panic in drivers.

In the following pages, we'll take a more detailed look at how a

regenerative braking system works, and we'll discuss reasons
why regenerative braking is more efficient than a typical
friction brake system.
The motor as a generator

Vehicles driven by electric motors use the motor as

a generator when using regenerative braking: it is operated as
a generator during braking and its output is supplied to an
electrical load; the transfer of energy to the load provides the
braking effect.
Regenerative braking is used on hybrid gas/electric
automobiles to recoup some of the energy lost during stopping.
This energy is saved in a storage battery and used later to
power the motor whenever the car is in electric mode.
Early examples of this system were the front-wheel
drive conversions of horse-drawn cabs by Louis Antoine Krieger
(1868–1951). The Krieger electric landaulet had a drive motor
in each front wheel with a second set of parallel windings
(bifilar coil) for regenerative braking. In England, the Raworth
system of "regenerative control" was introduced by tramway
operators in the early 1900s, since it offered them economic
and operational benefits as explained by A. Raworth of Leeds in
some detail.These included tramway systems at Devonport
(1903), Rawtenstall, Birmingham, Crystal Palace-Croydon
(1906) and many others. Slowing down the speed of the cars or
keeping it in hand on descending gradients, the motors worked
as generators and braked the vehicles. The tram cars also had
wheel brakes and track slipper brakes which could stop the
tram should the electric braking systems fail. In several cases
the tram car motors were shunt wound instead of series
wound, and the systems on the Crystal Palace line utilized
series-parallel controllers. Following a serious accident at
Rawtenstall, an embargo was placed on this form of traction in
1911. Twenty years later, the regenerative braking system was
reintroduced.
Regenerative braking has been in extensive use on railways for
many decades. The Baku-Tbilisi-Batumi railway
(Transcaucasian railway or Georgian railway) started utilizing
regenerative braking in the early 1930s. This was especially
effective on the steep and dangerous Surami Pass. In
Scandinavia the Kiruna to Narvik railway carries iron ore from
the mines in Kiruna in the north of Sweden down to the port of
Narvik in Norway to this day. The rail cars are full of thousands
of tons of iron ore on the way down to Narvik, and these trains
generate large amounts of electricity by their regenerative
braking. From Riksgränsen on the national border to the Port of
Narvik, the trains use only a fifth of the power they regenerate.
The regenerated energy is sufficient to power the empty trains
back up to the national border. Any excess energy from the
railway is pumped into the power grid to supply homes and
businesses in the region, and the railway is a net generator of
electricity.
An Energy Regeneration Brake was developed in 1967 for
the AMC Amitron. This was a completely battery powered
urban concept car whose batteries were recharged by
regenerative braking, thus increasing the range of the
automobile.
Many modern hybrid and electric vehicles use this technique to
extend the range of the battery pack. Examples include
the Toyota Prius, Honda Insight, the Vectrix electric maxi-
scooter, and the Chevrolet Volt.

Electric railway vehicle operation

During braking, the traction motor connections are altered to
turn them into electrical generators. The motor fields are
connected across the main traction generator (MG) and the
motor armatures are connected across the load. The MG now
excites the motor fields. The rolling locomotive or multiple unit
wheels turn the motor armatures, and the motors act as
generators, either sending the generated current through
onboard resistors (dynamic braking) or back into the supply
(regenerative braking).
For a given direction of travel, current flow through the motor
armatures during braking will be opposite to that during
motoring. Therefore, the motor exerts torque in a direction that
is opposite from the rolling direction.
Braking effort is proportional to the product of the magnetic
strength of the field windings, times that of the armature
windings.
Savings of 17% are claimed for Virgin Trains Pendolinos. There
is also less wear on friction braking components. The Delhi
Metro saved around 90,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from
being released into the atmosphere by regenerating 112,500
megawatt hours of electricity through the use of regenerative
braking systems between 2004 and 2007. It is expected that
the Delhi Metro will save over 100,000 tons of CO2 from being
emitted per year once its phase II is complete through the use
of regenerative braking.
Another form of simple, yet effective regenerative braking is
used on the London Underground which is achieved by having
small slopes leading up and down from stations. The train is
slowed by the climb, and then leaves down a slope, so kinetic
energy is converted to "stored" potential energy in the station.
Electricity generated by regenerative braking may be fed back
into the traction power supply; either offset against other
electrical demand on the network at that instant, or stored in
line side storage systems for later use.
Regenerative Braking Circuits
Regenerative braking is used in vehicles that make use of
electric motors, primarily fully electric vehicles and hybrid
electric vehicles. One of the more interesting properties of an
electric motor is that, when it's run in one direction, it converts
electrical energy into mechanical energy that can be used to
perform work (such as turning the wheels of a car), but when
the motor is run in the opposite direction, a properly designed
motor becomes an electric generator, converting mechanical
energy into electrical energy. This electrical energy can then
be fed into a charging system for the car's batteries.
In a regenerative braking system, the trick to getting the motor
to run backwards is to use the vehicle's momentum as the
mechanical energy that puts the motor into reverse.
Momentum is the property that keeps the vehicle moving
forward once it's been brought up to speed. Once the motor
has been reversed, the electricity generated by the motor is
fed back into the batteries, where it can be used to accelerate
the car again after it stops. Sophisticated electronic circuitry is
necessary to decide when the motor should reverse, while
specialized electric circuits route the electricity generated by
the motor into the vehicle's batteries. In some cases, the
energy produced by these types of brakes is stored in a series
of capacitors for later use. In addition, since vehicles using
these kinds of brakes also have a standard friction braking
system, the vehicle's electronics must decide which braking
system is appropriate at which time. Because so much is
controlled electronically in a regenerative braking system, it's
even possible for the driver to select certain presets that
determine how the vehicle reacts in different situations. For
instance, in some vehicles a driver can select whether
regenerative braking should begin immediately whenever the
driver's foot comes off the accelerator pedal and whether the
braking system will take the car all the way to 0 mph (0
kilometres per hour) or will let the car coast slightly.
There's a general movement in the automotive industry toward
so-called brake-by-wire systems where many of the functions
of brakes that have traditionally been performed mechanically
will be performed electronically. Hybrids and electric cars will
probably be early adopters of these brake types. At present,
different automotive engineers have come up with differing
circuit designs to handle the complexities of regenerative
braking; however, in all cases, the single most important part
of the braking circuitry is the braking controller, which we'll
discuss in the next section.

Regenerative Braking Controllers

Brake controllers are electronic devices that can control brakes

remotely, deciding when braking begins, ends, and how quickly
the brakes need to be applied. In towing situations, for
instance, brake controllers can provide a means of coordinating
the brakes on a trailer with the brakes on the vehicle doing the
towing.

Regenerative braking is implemented in conjunction with anti-

lock braking systems (ABS), so the regenerative braking
controller is similar to an ABS controller, which monitors the
rotational speed of the wheels and the difference in that speed
from one wheel to another. In vehicles that use these kinds of
brakes, the brake controller not only monitors the speed of the
wheels, but it can calculate how much torque -- rotational force
-- is available to generate electricity to be fed back into the
batteries. During the braking operation, the brake controller
directs the electricity produced by the motor into the batteries
or capacitors. It makes sure that an optimal amount of power is
received by the batteries, but also ensures that the inflow of
electricity isn't more than the batteries can handle.

The most important function of the brake controller, however,

may be deciding whether the motor is currently capable of
handling the force necessary for stopping the car. If it isn't, the
brake controller turns the job over to the friction brakes,
averting possible catastrophe. In vehicles that use these types
of brakes, as much as any other piece of electronics on board a
hybrid or electric car, the brake controller makes the entire
regenerative braking process possible.

Hybrid Regenerative Braking

Hybrid electric vehicles use both an electric motor and an

internal combustion engine to provide a best-of-both-worlds
driving experience. They combine the driving range of an
internal combustion engine with the fuel efficiency and
emissions-free characteristics of an electric motor. If a hybrid is
to have maximum fuel efficiency and produce as few carbon
emissions as possible, it's important that the battery remain
charged as long as possible. If a hybrid vehicle battery were to
lose its charge, the internal combustion engine would be
entirely responsible for powering the vehicle. At that point, the
vehicle is no longer acting as a hybrid but rather just another
car burning fossil fuels.

Automotive engineers have come up with a number of tricks to

wring the maximum efficiency out of hybrids, like aerodynamic
streamlining of the bodies and use of lightweight materials, but
arguably, one the most important is regenerative braking. In a
hybrid setup, however, these types of brakes can provide
power only to the electric motor part of the drivetrain via the
vehicle's battery. The internal combustion engine gains no
advantage from these kinds of brakes.

In part, these efficiencies are necessary due to the extreme

difficulty in finding a place to recharge a hybrid. This makes
longer trips difficult without relying on the hybrid's internal
combustion engine, which actually cancels out some of the
advantage of owning a hybrid.

Hydraulic Regenerative Braking

An alternative regenerative braking system is being developed

by the Ford Motor Company and the Eaton Corporation. It's
called Hydraulic Power Assist or HPA. With HPA, when the
driver steps on the brake, the vehicle's kinetic energy is used
to power a reversible pump, which sends hydraulic fluid from a
low pressure accumulator (a kind of storage tank) inside the
vehicle into a high pressure accumulator. The pressure is
created by nitrogen gas in the accumulator, which is
compressed as the fluid is pumped into the space the gas
formerly occupied. This slows the vehicle and helps bring it to a
stop. The fluid remains under pressure in the accumulator until
the driver pushes the accelerator again, at which point the
pump is reversed and the pressurized fluid is used to
accelerate the vehicle, effectively translating the kinetic
energy that the car had before braking into the mechanical
energy that helps get the vehicle back up to speed. It's
predicted that a system like this could store 80 percent of the
momentum lost by a vehicle during deceleration and use it to
get the vehicle moving again [source: HybridCars.com]. This
percentage represents an even more impressive gain than
what is produced by current regenerative braking systems.
Like electronic regenerative braking, these kinds of brakes --
HPA systems -- are best used for city driving, where stop-and-
go traffic is common.

So far, HPA systems have been used primarily as proofs of

concept and in demonstration projects only. They aren't quite
ready for production models just yet. At present,
these hydraulic brakes are noisy and prone to leaks; however,
once all of the details are ironed out, such systems will
probably be most useful in large trucks weighing 10,000
pounds (4,536 kilograms) or more, where these types of brakes
may prove to be a more optimal system than electronically
controlled regenerative brakes.

Eventually, this technology may trickle down to smaller

vehicles. One company, Hybrid-Drive Systems, LLC, of
Michigan, has retrofitted a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle with a
hydraulic regenerative braking system. However, the
accumulators take up a considerable amount of space, and
future production plans are focused more on using the
technology in larger vehicles, like vans. Meanwhile, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has partnered with
Eaton Corporation to install hydraulic regenerative braking
systems on UPS delivery trucks.

Regenerative Braking Efficiency

The energy efficiency of a conventional car is only about 20

percent, with the remaining 80 percent of its energy being
converted to heat through friction. The miraculous thing about
regenerative braking is that it may be able to capture as much
as half of that wasted energy and put it back to work. This
could reduce fuel consumption by 10 to 25 percent. Hydraulic
regenerative braking systems could provide even more
impressive gains, potentially reducing fuel use by 25 to 45
percent [source: HybridCars.com]. In a century that may see
the end of the vast fossil fuel reserves that have provided us
with energy for automotive and other technologies for many
years, and in which fears about carbon emissions are coming
to a peak, this added efficiency is becoming increasingly
important.
The beginning of the 21st century could very well mark the
final period in which internal combustion engines are
commonly used in cars. Already automakers are moving
toward alternative energy carriers,
such as electric batteries, hydrogen fuel and even compressed
air. Regenerative braking is a small, yet very important, step
toward our eventual independence from fossil fuels. These
kinds of brakes allow batteries to be used for longer periods of
time without the need to be plugged into an external charger.
These types of brakes also extend the driving range of fully
electric vehicles. In fact, this technology has already helped
bring us cars like the Tesla Roadster, which runs entirely on
battery power. Sure, these cars may use fossil fuels at the
recharging stage -- that is, if the source of the electricity comes
from a fossil fuel such as coal -- but when they're out there on
the road, they can operate with no use of fossil fuels at all, and
that's a big step forward.
The added efficiency of regenerative braking also means less
pain at the pump, since hybrids with electric motors and
regenerative brakes can travel considerably farther on a gallon
of gas, some achieving more than 50 miles per gallon at this
point. And that's something that most drivers can really
appreciate.

Regenerative Braking Diagram

This simple diagram shows how a regenerative braking system is able to recapture some of
the vehicle's kinetic energy and convert it into electricity. This electricity is then used to
recharge the vehicle's batteries.
Limitations

Traditional friction-based braking is used in conjunction with

mechanical regenerative braking for the following reasons:
 The regenerative braking effect drops off at lower speeds;
therefore the friction brake is still required in order to bring
 the vehicle to a complete halt. Physical locking of the rotor is
also required to prevent vehicles from rolling down hills.
 The friction brake is a necessary back-up in the event of
failure of the regenerative brake.
 Most road vehicles with regenerative braking only have
power on some wheels (as in a two-wheel drive car) and
regenerative braking power only applies to such wheels
because they are the only wheels linked to the drive motor,
so in order to provide controlled braking under difficult
conditions (such as in wet roads) friction based braking is
necessary on the other wheels.
 The amount of electrical energy capable of dissipation is
limited by either the capacity of the supply system to absorb
this energy or on the state of charge of the battery or
capacitors. No regenerative braking effect can occur if
another electrical component on the same supply system is
not currently drawing power and if the battery or capacitors
are already charged. For this reason, it is normal to also
incorporate dynamic braking to absorb the excess energy.
 Under emergency braking it is desirable that the braking
force exerted be the maximum allowed by the friction
between the wheels and the surface without slipping, over
the entire speed range from the vehicle's maximum speed
down to zero. The maximum force available for acceleration
is typically much less than this except in the case of extreme
high-performance vehicles. Therefore, the power required to
be dissipated by the braking system under emergency
braking conditions may be many times the maximum power
which is delivered under acceleration. Traction motors sized
to handle the drive power may not be able to cope with the
extra load and the battery may not be able to accept charge
at a sufficiently high rate. Friction braking is required to
dissipate the surplus energy in order to allow an acceptable
emergency braking performance.
For these reasons there is typically the need to control the
regenerative braking and match the friction and regenerative
braking to produce the desired total braking output. The
GM EV-1was the first commercial car to do this. Engineers
Abraham Farag and Loren Majersik were issued two patents for
this brake-by-wire technology.[
Sources
• BrakeByWire.com. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://www.brakebywire.com/
• Cantwell, Katie. "Regeneration Overview." Rockwell Automation Allen-Bradley. May 7,
2002. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://www.ab.com/drives/techpapers/RegenOverview01.pdf
• Chen, Jason. "Panasonic Makes Electric Bike with Regenerative Braking." Gizmodo.
July 7, 2008. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://gizmodo.com/5022587/panasonic-makes-electric-bike-with-regenerative-braking
• Continental Corporation. "ISAD and EHB Make Cars More Economical and More
Environmentally Friendly." March 17, 2002. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/com/en/continental/portal/themes/
press_services/press_releases/products/automotive_systems/brakesystems/
pr_2002_03_17_7_en.html
• Gitlin, Jonathan M. "McLaren and Freescale partner up for regenerative braking."
Ars Technica. Nov. 5, 2008. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081113-mclaren-and-freescale-partner-
up-for-regenerative-braking.html
• HybridCars.com. "Hydraulic Hybrids." April 3, 2006. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://www.hybridcars.com/related-technologies/hydraulic-hybrids.html
• Torrens, Richard. "Regen Braking." 4QD. Nov. 3, 2008. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://www.4qd.co.uk/fea/regen.html
• Tur, Okan, et al. "Application Note on Regenerative Braking of Electric Vehicles as
Anti-Lock Braking System." Ansoft, LLC. April 11, 2006. (Jan. 13, 2009)
http://www.ansoft.com/news/articles/RegenBrakingAsABS.pdf