Use of Gravitational Energy Storage Devices in Electric Drives of Vehicles

In most transport drives, a significant part of the energy consumed by the drive motors is uselessly extinguished during braking. At the same time, the increase in electricity consumption has a negative impact on the environment, as it leads to pollution of the atmosphere and water. One way to improve the energy efficiency of vehicles is the use of energy storage devices. In the structure of electric energy consumption, electric transport occupies one of the leading positions, so the issues of energy saving, which have become particularly acute recently due to the rising cost of electricity, are becoming more and more important for electric transport. The paper considers a method of increasing the energy efficiency of electric drives for transport purposes by applying gravitational energy storage devices operating in dynamic start-up and braking modes. It is shown that the application of gravitational energy storage device allows to compensate the energy required for acceleration and braking. This makes it possible to significantly reduce the power of the actuating motor to achieve the required characteristics of reproducible movements while maintaining the drive performance. A mathematical apparatus, which allows a reasonable approach to the choice of gravitational energy storage device characteristics, has been developed. The adequacy of the obtained calculation ratios is shown on a specific example.