Design and Implementation of Ultra Capacitor Based Regenerative Braking System for a DC Motor

Electrical vehicle with its high efficiency, noiseless operation and effective elimination of toxic exhaust gases have gained attention this decade. In earlier times, when conventional vehicles were used a large amount of energy was wasted due to the friction between the wheels and brake pads. In regenerative braking instead of wasting the energy produced during braking, the excess energy is stored and reused with the help of ultra capacitor based arrangement. Hence regenerative braking plays a vital role in electric vehicles. The present study is focused on ultra capacitor based regenerative braking system and it consists of synchronous buck-boost converter, ultra capacitor, battery, DC motor and a flywheel. With a synchronous buck-boost converter the kinetic energy stored in the vehicle can be converted into electrical energy and hence can be reused. In the present work regenerative braking along with the energy restoration are being discussed. During the motoring mode the battery drives the motor and this energy is stored in a flywheel. During regenerative braking, the DC motor act as a generator and the saved energy is fed to the ultra capacitor through a current controlled operation. The variation of motor speed, ultra capacitor current and voltage during regenerative braking operations was discussed.