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Study on regenerative braking system, considerations of design, safety and

associated effects

Conference Paper · August 2015

DOI: 10.1109/ITEC-India.2015.7386930

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 20XX-01-XXXX

Study on regenerative braking system, considerations of design, safety and

associated effects

Prateek Patel, Harish Chandra, Dr. Tapan Sahoo

Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Copyright © 20xx SAE International

Abstract when this stored energy is re-used by the motor for propelling
the vehicle.
This paper discusses about derivation of potential of
regenerative braking from Indian driving perspective and it also Previous studies [3] comprehensively depict a method for
evaluates parameters useful for system design using data quantitatively defining design requirements for regenerative
analysis. The fuel efficiency potential and other calculation braking systems. By referring their method this paper focuses
results are based on Indian homologation cycle and collection on design and control aspect of such an electric regenerative
of real world driving data which was condensed into braking system, by calculating the potential of regenerative
meaningful drive cycles for prominent Indian cities. Component braking from Indian city driving data and then quantifying the
and control strategy requirements are calculated and the component sizing and other requirements using data analysis.
compromises that would result due to the calibrations in The later part of the paper deals in quantifying the
strategy are quantitatively defined. This enables the engineers compromises resulting from any control strategy and then
to make concrete data driven decisions during system design. discusses (qualitatively) impact of such a system from safety
and efficiency point of view with other vehicle systems.
The paper also discusses incorporating safety related
considerations in system design e.g. Stability during wheel General considerations for Regenerative braking
lock, safety from generation at high power, effect of ABS and system
understanding the effect of an electric regenerative braking
system on vehicle chassis behavior while briefly discussing An electric regenerative braking system may not suffice the
about enhancing regenerative braking potential by changes in basic requirement of braking system alone. This is because of
system and control design. limitation of energy dissipation at very high power. The storage
and generation systems may not be capable to operate at
Keywords those levels due to design limitations. Due to critical level of
safety involved with the system, reliability becomes debatable
and it necessitates a frictional braking system to co-exist with
Regenerative braking, data analysis, component sizing, electrical regenerative braking system. [3] This forms a hybrid
braking safety, ABS (Antilock braking system), IC engine braking system [4], which means:
(Internal combustion engine), control strategy, system design
1. Just like hybrid propulsion systems, there can be
Introduction many design configurations and control strategies.

With increasing concerns for environmental pollution and 2. Design and control of system should be such that
limitations of fossil fuels, automobile manufacturers are they ensure vehicle’s desired braking performance
inclined to use renewable energy sources (like biofuel) and while at the same time capturing as much energy as
energy recovery systems in order to reduce the waste energy possible.
and reuse it [1]. For this purpose, the regenerative braking
system could be mentioned as an energy recovery mechanism During devising strategies a careful consideration of
which slows a vehicle down by converting its kinetic energy braking behavior and its characteristics w.r.t. speed,
into another form (electric, pressure, inertia etc.), which can be braking power, deceleration rate etc. must be made.
either used immediately or stored until needed. Studies have
found that electric regenerative braking can help to improve
fuel efficiency by 20-50% depending on electric machine size Methodology
[2]. This is achieved by operating electric machine as
generator and then storing the generated energy in a storage a. Four different Indian city cycles along with MIDC
media, such as battery. The benefit of this feature is realized (Modified Indian Driving Cycle) were considered for
analysis. These cycles were formulated by driving and
Page 1 of 8
 data logging in different Indian cities and condensing calculated to be as high as 30-40% of traction energy (refer
the data into meaningful cycles such that they Appendix). This represents a huge potential of regenerative
represent real world driving in major Indian cities. It is braking system.
believed that these represent Indian driving scenario
more closely.
b. Computation and data analysis were done on these
cycles for a representative vehicle and different
parameters related to regeneration over the cycle
were calculated.
c. A number of assumptions were made for the analysis
and after computations various graphs [3] were
plotted and design decisions were discussed.

Assumptions

The analysis has been performed with the following

assumptions:

1. The analysis findings indicate only theoretical

maximum potential out of which some part may be
non-recoverable due to system design and control
strategy limitation.
2. The analysis focuses only on regenerative braking Figure 1. Cumulative traction and braking energy in the cycle
system design, thus any influence of traction
application is not accounted while making design or Percentage of Energy observed above particular
control decisions. power value (Fig. 2)
3. The energy conversion efficiency is considered 100%.
4. It is assumed that battery is capable of absorbing all
the energy at corresponding power that is coming out This data can be very helpful for deciding power rating of the e-
from the generator with 100% efficiency. machine and onboard energy storage system, so that they are
5. Regeneration is considered in all gears and for all rpm capable of recovering most of the braking energy. It indicates
values above idle. that for an e-machine of a specific power rating what proportion
6. Any effect of gradient is not considered while of total regeneration energy will be wasted as this is the
calculating regenerative braking related parameters in amount of energy that is observed above the power capacity of
the analysis. the e-machine. It can be seen that above a certain power value
7. Regeneration is considered during coasting as well as (circled zone) even if e-machine power rating is increased
braking. Hence, it is implied that there is no change in there is no significant increase in the energy captured during
deceleration profile of the vehicle despite additional braking and the additional increase in cost and weight due to
regeneration from e-machine and for that engine may increase in power rating cannot be justified. Therefore, this
be suitably downsized or may be decoupled at value can be used as optimal power capacity for e-machine.
appropriate instances from the driveline during This has helped in making a data driven decision rather than
coasting and in such conditions e-machine torque iterative simulation based decision.
provides the requisite braking torque.

Key Findings
The analysis is performed on a specific vehicle with applicable
weight, gear ratios and other parameters. Although the graphs
shown in following section are for MIDC, a similar analysis has
also been done for four Indian city cycles. The associated
graphs and result tables are presented at the end of the paper.
(Refer Appendix)

Cumulative traction and braking energy in the cycle

(Fig. 1)

Over MIDC (with the representative vehicle) it was observed

that braking energy is 15% of the traction energy of the cycle.
Although, 15% may appear a rather small proportion, but, if the
regenerated braking energy is used to drive the vehicle (which
will again regenerate 15% energy) a maximum of 17.7% Figure 2. Percentage of energy observed above a particular power
energy theoretically can be harnessed and utilized. On other
city (Indian) cycles this theoretical maximum potential was
Page 2 of 8
Peak braking power vs. vehicle speed (Fig.3) Braking energy below a particular speed (Fig. 5)

This parameter can help in design of speed-power profile of This can help to decide the speed threshold below which
electric generator in order to optimally match braking regeneration can be disabled (marked in the figure) as around
requirements. Having decided the power rating of the e- that speed there will not be much benefit due to regeneration,
machine from previous data, it would now be useful to decide since at such low speeds low EMF will result into lower
the power-speed characteristics, so that energy capture is generation. While deciding this threshold one can quantitatively
maximized. This is ensured by selecting a power speed curve define the amount of compromise in energy.
which increases in such a manner that it is able to capture
maximum energy until rated power of e-machine (calculated
previously) is realized at some specific speed. This parameter
determines the slope of rise of e-machine power with speed to
capture maximum regeneration energy.

Figure 5. Braking energy below a particular speed

This restriction is necessary considering the safety aspect, as

during panic or hard braking when the wheels are about to get
locked, the wheel rpm would go down (supposedly below this
Figure 3. Peak braking power v/s vehicle speed threshold) and regeneration should be disabled for braking
performance maximization as well as avoiding any damage to
Braking energy distribution (Fig. 4) electrical systems, since the vehicle would be capturing energy
at very high power due to hard braking. Therefore, below a
This can help in deciding the operating efficiency specific threshold speed only mechanical braking should be
characteristics of the generator. In the speed range in which primarily applied.
braking energy is most dissipated, the operating efficiency of e-
machine during regeneration may be designed for attaining its Additional consideration: Although it may seem beneficial to
best value. This zone is circled with dashed line in Fig. 4 for keep the compromises low by choosing a very low value of
MIDC data. vehicle speed, but care must be taken to analyze the same
data for different gears and ensure that the chosen speed
corresponds to an engine speed that is suitably above the low
idle speed in that gear.

Limitations and implications of

Regenerative braking system

Wheel lock behavior for different axles

When designing regenerative braking system, care must be

taken to avoid rear wheels from locking. Because, when rear
wheels get locked, the Under-steer coefficient increases to a
large negative value causing infinite amount of over-steer, thus
causing the loss of ‘directional stability’. This is a limitation
which needs to be accounted for when integrating regenerative
braking system with friction braking.

Figure 4. Braking energy distribution with speed

Page 3 of 8
 Control strategy for maximum regenerative braking

Under the limitations imposed by ECE R13 regulation,

considering a case of front axle mounted e-machine system,
when braking is less than a certain value all braking can be
performed using regenerative braking system. When braking
exceeds this value the mechanical braking forces on front and
rear wheels start increasing as well as electrical braking
increases to make total braking follow the ECE line (Broken
blue line) [3]. This would allow maximum regenerative braking,
as e-machine is considered to be mounted on front axle and
the distribution of brake force on front wheels is always at its
maximum permissible limit. However, to capture max possible
regeneration energy two conditions must be met:
1. E-machine and energy storage system must be capable
enough to provide requisite brake torque and capture the
vehicle kinetic energy at corresponding power levels.
2. Road adhesive coefficient must be sufficient to prevent
Figure 6. a) Loss of directional stability when rear wheels are locked wheel slippage, as the vehicle may be operating near wheel
b) Loss of directional control (steer) when front wheels are locked traction limits.

In case of front wheels, locking of wheels causes loss of Effect of ABS on regenerative braking potential
‘directional control’ and reduces the available steering control.
However, loss of steering control may be more readily detected On the previous brake force distribution diagram (Fig. 7)
by driver and control may be regained by releasing the brakes considering a case where under some available coefficient of
as the wheel slip is primarily in longitudinal direction. friction of the wheels with the road, the deceleration demand is
such that front wheels approach locking condition. In this case
If rear wheels lock and slippage happens (this initiates tire side the system (with front axle mounted e-machine) with ABS will
slip) and if it exceeds a certain level, control cannot be capture more energy than a system that does not have an
regained even by complete release of brakes (as brakes help ABS. This is because in the aforementioned scenario, when
in reducing longitudinal slip). wheels will about to be locked, ABS will influence
(appropriately reduce) friction braking on front wheels and
leave electrical braking unaffected. For a system without ABS,
This aspect of safety has caused some braking
due to fixed proportioning, friction braking cannot be altered
regulations to come into force, like the ECE R13 braking
after a specific brake demand is made by the driver and
regulation. This states that front wheels must lock before the
electrical braking will need to be reduced when wheels
rear wheels in any scenario. The utilization of braking force on
approach locking condition, thus reducing the potential of
rear wheels must be such that, if front wheels are locked, rear
regenerative braking. On Fig.7 the green line shows the
braking force must produce some minimum deceleration, j/g >=
amount of electrical braking on front axle under wheel lock
0.1 + 0.85 (µ - 0.2) (where j: deceleration demand, µ:
scenario for both ABS and non-ABS systems.
coefficient of friction). On typical brake force distribution graph,
the regulatory requirement of brake force distribution can be
represented by a curve as shown in Fig. 7 (dashed line). Implication of Regenerative braking on suspension
system

When designing a regenerative braking system it is also

important to understand how braking forces are reacted by
suspension [6]. Tire forces from friction braking are
compensated by suspension (anti-dive), while regenerative
braking forces are compensated by drivetrain (Anti squat) as
shown in Fig. 8. As these characteristics play decisive role in
body pitch behavior, ride comfort needs to be evaluated when
braking switches between regenerative and friction braking or
when the magnitudes of either of these vary during braking
(e.g. in ABS equipped systems). The choice of switching
thresholds should be such that the switch from one form of
braking to other is at a point where rate of change of body pitch
due to both medium is same, allowing a seamless change of
magnitudes or of braking media altogether.

Figure 7. Representative graph for front and rear axle brake force
distribution
Page 4 of 8
 this de-clutching of engine from the driveline should be
restricted by the control strategy.

b. When the system design is such that engine (gasoline

type) is necessarily coupled to the driveline during
regenerative braking (belt starter generator design) then,
to reduce the loss of vehicle kinetic energy due to
pumping losses of engine, the design can be made such
that when accelerator pedal is completely depressed,
throttle butterfly valve can remain open to some extent
while fuel injection is cut-off. This will reduce pumping
work and additional regeneration torque can be applied
using e-machine and potential of regenerative braking can
be enhanced.

In the similar manner for diesel engines if the system

design creates additional braking due to back pressure
generation in the exhaust system, either by some
operation of VGT, Waste gate etc. or by use of retarding
techniques like J-brake etc. additional torque from e-
machine can be applied to create a similar deceleration
effect with appropriate considerations of braking safety,
especially when substituting services of retarders by e-
machine torque.

c. For regeneration during coasting or with electric

regenerative braking systems of category A (i.e. when
Figure 8. Vehicle pitch behavior due to braking force reactions actuation and magnitude of the regenerative braking force
is independent of brake pedal input by driver), the most
Practical implication of regeneration system on obvious solution appears to provide a regenerative braking
customer usage of constant magnitude or a simple speed dependent e-
machine braking torque as soon as accelerator pedal is
depressed. However, to increase the potential of
Generally, at moderate speeds initial braking is performed
regenerative braking in such scenarios, the magnitude of
using regeneration system due to energy being dissipated at
braking can be made more dynamic by mapping it to the
acceptable power levels. However, if the e-machine had been
rate of decrease of accelerator pedal input. This is to
driving the vehicle previously, instantaneous reversal of
estimate the anticipated deceleration rate by the driver
magnetic field is not possible when braking is requested from
and fulfilling the requirement accordingly.
the e-machine. This phenomenon results in poor brake bite
when brakes are initially applied [5] and can affect braking
effectiveness for a short duration. The aspect that requires careful consideration in this
Similarly, if a system has e-drive provided by same e-machine, design is to carefully map brake torque for drivability and
initial torque buildup will take some time after the e-machine safety, one such consideration can be to allow this feature
has been used during braking (again due to reversal of field below a certain value of accelerator pedal input and in
from braking to driving). To avoid this, pre-fluxing (especially some specific gears only. This may ensure that at high
during vehicle stop) is done, which helps to neutralize effects speeds this functionality does not compromise the safety
of retentivity in the e-machine. in any way.

Enhancing regenerative braking potential Summary & Conclusion

by design
The paper presents a method to understand actual potential of
regenerative braking and computes parameters related to
a. When the system design is such that engine can be
design requirement using simple data analysis techniques.
decoupled from the driveline while e-machine still
Control strategy related thresholds have been derived and their
connected during braking (dual clutch or in wheel motor
impact on overall energy capture is also quantified. From
design), then it can be beneficial to disengage engine and
systems design perspective, the paper links different vehicle
increase the e-machine torque to retain the same
systems and their interaction with regenerative braking. The
deceleration profile as it would have been in the presence
strategy for energy maximization discusses the compromise
of engine braking.
associated with ECE R13 regulation which is an important
criterion to be followed for safety of the vehicle. The paper
But, safety aspect should be kept in consideration as due covers regenerative braking system design and associated
to torque reversal phenomenon (mentioned earlier) effects in width and enables the designer to make informed
instantaneous braking might not be available from the e- and data driven decision.
machine. Hence, at speeds higher than an appropriate
value and in sudden and high braking demands scenario
Page 5 of 8
References [7] Happian-Smith, Julian, An introduction to Modern Vehicle
Design, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2002.
[1] Mohammad Mostafa Ghafouryan, Sadegh Ataee, Fateme
Tavakoli Dastjerd, "A novel method for the design of [8] Gillespie, Thomas, "Fundamental of Vehicle dynamics,"
regenerative brake system in an urban automotive," Journal Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), 1992.
of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and
Engineering, 2014.

[2] J. K. Ahn, K. H. Jung, D. H. Kim, H. B. Jin, H. S. Kim and S. Contact Information

H. Hwang, "Analysis of a regenerative braking system for
Hybrid Electric Vehicles using an Electro-Mechanical
Mr. Prateek Patel
Brake," International Journal of Automotive Technology, pp.
Designation: Assistant Manager
229-234, 2009.
Organization Name: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
Email address: [email protected]
[3] Ehsani Mehrdad, Gao Yimin, Emadi Ali, Modern Electric,
Hybrid Electric and Fuel Cell Vehicles, CRC Press, 2010. Mr. Harish Chandra
Designation: Manager
Organization Name: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
[4] Gao, Dr. Yimin, "Regenerative Braking," Encyclopedia of
Sustainability Science and Technology, 2012. Email address: [email protected]

Dr. Tapan Sahoo

[5] Singh, Vikrant, "2013 Toyota Camry Hybrid India road test: Designation: Vice President Engineering
Overdrive India," 29 October 2013. [accessed online on 5 Organization Name: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd
June 2014]. Email address: [email protected]

[6] Sven A. Beiker, Renate C. Vachenauer, "The impact of Acknowledgement

Hybrid-Electric Powertrains on Chassis Systems and
Vehicle Dynamics," SAE International PT-143/3. The authors would like to thank our organization and all our
department members for their support, feedback and
continuous encouragement in this study.

Page 6 of 8
 APPENDIX

a. Cumulative traction and braking energy in city cycles

City A City B

City C City D

Table 1. Potential of regenerative braking on different cycles

S. no. Cycle Regenerative braking potential Maximum theoretical regeneration potential

1. City A 32.17 % 47.42 %

2. City B 26.34 % 35.76 %

3. City C 29.82 % 42.49 %

4. City D 30.48 % 43.85 %

5. MIDC 15.04 % 17.71 %

6. MIDC (city phase only) 21.84 % 27.95 %

Page 7 of 8
 b. Percentage of Energy observed above particular power value

City A City B

City C City D

Table 2. Power value for minimum 65% energy capture in different cycles

Power value (indicative only and suitably rounded off) at which minimum 65* % energy can
S. no. Cycle
be captured

1. City A 6 kW

2. City B 5 kW

3. City C 4 kW

4. City D 4 kW

5. MIDC 8 kW

6. MIDC (city phase only) 5 kW

* Selected on the basis of MIDC analysis

Page 8 of 8

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