Regenerative Braking

oI Series-Wound Brushed DC Electric Motors Ior

Electric Vehicles

Y. Xiao
School oI EECE
UWA,
Perth, Australia

M. Nemec
Faculty oI EE
UL,
Ljubljana, Slovenia

L.J.Borle
School oI EECE
UWA,
Perth, Australia

V. Sreeram
School oI EECE
UWA,
Perth, Australia

H.H.C IU
School oI EECE
UWA,
Perth, Australia


$EVWUDFW-the most widely used configuration of DC machines is
series-wound type. The main advantages are simpler control
system design and no separately excited field windings. However,
the use of DC motors in electric vehicles has declined
dramatically in the current decade. Unless the efficiency of such a
system can be improved significantly the use of DC motors in
electrical vehicles becomes unattractive. One possible way of
improving the efficiency is to include regenerative braking.
Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism used to
improve the drive distance of electric vehicles. Hence in this
paper, a regenerative braking mechanism for a series-wound dc
motor system is proposed. The simulation results are also
presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed regenerative
braking system.
,QGH[ 7HUPV-DC motor, Electric Vehicles, Regenerative
Braking System, Series-Wound Configuration.
I. INTRODUCTION
n recent years, the development oI hybrid and Electrical
Vehicles (EVs) has become highly popular. This can be
seen due to the increasing awareness oI global warming
and the rising cost oI petrol prices. As electric vehicles are
deemed much more environmentally conscious, it is believed
that EVs will dominate the market and replace the existing
Gasoline Vehicles (GVs). Compared to GVs, EVs have
several advantages namely operationally quiet, less expensive
and produce zero emission. This is achieved by the use oI
electric motors instead oI internal combustion engines in EVs.
There are two types oI motors used in EVs: DC and AC
motors. Due to the eIIiciency considerations, majority oI
vehicle manuIacturers preIer to use AC motors instead oI DC
motors in EVs |1|-|4|. Most oI their designs have been used in
the prototype electric cars |5|-|7|. However some oI the
manuIacturers still see the potential Ior the DC motor because
AC motors are highly expensive compared to DC motors. For
instance, 'Commuter Cars has manuIactured Tango T600
that utilized an FB1-4001 DC motor. However, the power
electronic system Ior this motor in this vehicle doesn`t have a
regenerative braking Iunction |8|. By deIinition, a regenerative

1
This project was supported in part by API and the School oI Electrical,
Electronics and Computer under University oI Western Australia.

braking is an energy recovery mechanism which slows a
vehicle by converting its kinetic energy into electric energy.
This means the Tango T600 could not be as eIIicient as the
AC-Motor vehicles. To improve and identiIy the Ieasibility oI
using DC motors in electrical vehicles, it is important to
design a regenerative braking system Ior this vehicle and
especially, using series-wound conIiguration. The reason Ior
using series-wound conIiguration is that it is widely used in
industry, electrical vehicle conversion projects and electric
vehicle manuIacturers |8|. Thus, the regenerative braking
system would be achieved by using only inexpensive power
electronic switching devices instead oI highly expensive
reconIiguration oI the DC series motors as Toyota Prius |9|.

In this paper, we Iirst consider a setup Ior an ordinary series-
wound DC motor system without regenerative braking.
Section II presents the simulation design oI such a
conIiguration. Since FB1-4001 motor is the most common dc
motor used in electric vehicles, it is chosen to be the test
subject Ior this project and then modeled. The simulation also
depicts a proposed torque and speed controller that provides
control and stability to the system. Then the system circuitry is
connected by using this DC motor, a MOSFET, PID
controllers and Ireewheeling diode. In Section III, the authors
present a novel series dc motor system with regenerative
braking whose core mechanics are similar to the ordinary
series wound system. The circuitry diIIerences between the
proposed system and the ordinary system are: 1) The proposed
system has a rectiIier at the Iield side; 2) It uses Iull bridge
switching method. In Section IV, the simulation results oI both
systems are demonstrated and compared. The comparison
results show that the proposed system is superior to the
ordinary system due to its regenerative braking property.
II. SERIES-WOUND DC MOTOR SIMULATION DESIGN
A. DC Motor Moaeling
To have a realistic simulation results, the Iirst step is to
model the DC motor. In order to model dc motor in the
Simulink, the parameters needed are armature resistance,
armature inductance, Iield resistance, Iield inductance and
inertia. Using inductance and resistance measuring device, the
1
I
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resistance and inductance oI both armature and Iield windings
are obtained experimentally Irom a real FB1-4001 DC motor.
Furthermore, the inertia value required Ior simulation has been
obtained Irom Tango T600 manuIacturer.

The DC motor model in Simulink can be described by the
Iollowing equations:
Constant :
:
:
:
:
(3)
(2)
(1)

Joltage K
Current Fiela I
Jelocity Angular
Flux
BackEMF E
J
F
F
b
F
I
v
K
b
E
F
I
v
K
F
F b
E
Z
\
Z
\
Z \
u u
u
u


As it can be seen in (1), the back EMF is proportional to the
Ilux and angular velocity. From equation (2), the Ilux is
proportional to the voltage constant and Iield current. When
we substitute equation (2) into equation (1), the equation (3)
can be obtained. Hence the back EMF is supposed to be
proportional to Iield current, angular velocity and voltage
constant. However observing the application note, K
J
is not a
constant in the real motor due to saturation. Hence the
Simulink DC motor model has been modiIied with a 'Look-
up table instead oI using a constant value Ior K
J
. And all
values in the 'Look-up table are collected Irom the
manuIacturer`s application notes oI FB1-4001 DC motor.
B. Control System Design
In a real vehicle control system, there are two expected
control variables Ior controlling the DC motor. One is torque
and the other is speed. As a result, the next step is to design a
control system that can control these two variables. According
to cascaded control method |10|, the speed control loop should
be outside the torque control loop considering the reIerence
input Irom the driver oI the electric vehicle in practice. And
the block diagram oI the control system is shown in Fig.2.


Fig. 2. Block diagram oI cascaded control loop |10|
Since the position control loop is not necessary Ior vehicle
control, the outer loop can be ignored. Since proportional
integralderivative controller (PID controller) is a generic
control loop Ieedback mechanism (controller) widely used in
industrial control systems |11|, two PID controllers are chosen
to realize the Speed and Torque Controllers as shown in Fig.2.
To simpliIy the analysis and design, the PI controllers, which
are special PID controllers, are used.

With the PI controller and cascaded control loop, the
simulation circuitry Ior the ordinary series-wound dc motor
system can be built. The completed system consists oI PI
controllers, PWM generator, and the electrical system. The
Fig.3 shows the circuitry oI the electrical system. According to
Fig.2, the PI controllers obtain the measurements oI speed and
torque Irom the electrical system and generate control signal
Ior the PWM generator. Then the PWM generator can improve
the eIIiciency oI the electrical system by powering on and oII
the MOSFET in the electrical system with perIect timing. In
the electrical system, MOSFET is ideal Ior high current
switching and low switching loss. Also, a diode is necessary
Ior Ireewheeling mode. Furthermore, to sense the braking oI
the whole system, a sensor is required. II the input reIerence
requires a negative torque then an external mechanical brake
will give an external inertia to the electrical system so that the
motor will slowed down. AIter connecting the PI controllers
and the PWM generator to electrical system, the completed
simulation schematic can be built. Through simulations, the PI
controllers are tuned manually to achieve the optimum
perIormance.

Fig. 3. Electric system Ior the ordinary series-wound DC motor system.
C. Speea Test Input
The electric drive system is supposed to be able to be
driven under diIIerent circumstances. Hence the speed input
should be long enough and covers diIIerent situations. The
New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) is used Ior type
approval oI light-duty vehicle models |12|. Also, the current
manuIactured electrical vehicles are all light-duty vehicles so
it is reasonable to use NEDC to test the system. As it is
marked in Fig.4, NEDC has 4 repeats oI a low speed urban
cycle and a highway driving cycle, which will probably cover
most oI the driving cycles within one day. Furthermore, this
has a total test distance oI 11017 meter, duration oI 1180
seconds and average speed oI 33.6 km/h |13|.
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Fig. 4. New European Driving Cycle |12|
III. THE PROPOSED REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM
A. Regenerative Braking System Requirements
In electrical vehicles, regenerative braking is required to
improve driving distance oI EVs. According to our knowledge
oI electric machines, two conditions have to be satisIied to
achieve regenerative braking. Firstly, the armature current has
to have a diIIerent direction to that oI the Iield current. During
this time period, the electric motor will work as a generator so
that the back EMF will act as an energy source to drive the
current to Ilow backwards. In other words, the armature
current will have two possible Ilow directions but the Iield
current can only have one Ilow direction. Second condition is
that the regenerated energy has to be greater than the total
energy loss oI the system so that the remaining energy can be
used to charge the batteries. However iI the regenerated power
cannot compensate Ior the system losses, the use oI
regenerative braking will be unreasonable.
B. Design of the proposea system

Fig. 5. Block Diagram oI the modiIied Series-Wound DC motor system

The above circuit conIiguration will achieve the conditions
required to be satisIied Ior regenerative braking. It can be
easily seen that the armature current can have two diIIerent
directions, one Ior motoring (during driving) and the other Ior
generating operations (during braking). However, due to the
Iull bridge, the Iield current can have only one direction.

C. Full-Briage Switching Moaification ana Control
Scheme
From observing Iigures in Fig.6, it is apparent that in the
driving mode the armature current can Ilow Irom the positive
to the negative side oI the battery. There is a diode in parallel
with each oI the MOSFETs. These diodes can be used as
Ireewheeling diodes so that the PWM can be used to switch
the device. Hence the eIIiciency oI such a system can be
guaranteed. When the system switches to braking mode, there
are two conducting stages. In order to change the direction oI
the armature current, during the Iirst stage oI the braking the
back EMF and the battery will be series as shown in Fig.6.b.
In this conIiguration, Q2 and Q3 are switched on and Q1 and
Q4 are switched oII so that the armature current can change its
direction easily. AIter the armature current changes its
direction and increases, the MOSFETS states would be
changed back as displayed in Fig.6.c. Consequently, the back
EMF will charge the battery during this stage. As shown in the
three Iigures, the Iull-bridge conIiguration shown can be used
to implement regenerative braking.

Fig. 6.a. Driving mode

Fig. 6.b. Initial Braking mode

Fig. 6.c. Regenerative Braking mode
D. Rectification Moaification for the Fiela Winaing
Since the armature side has been modiIied to have two
current directions, the only problem leIt is that it is not only
necessary to Iix the direction oI Iield current but keep the
conIiguration oI series-wound machine unchanged. This can
be achieved by using a Iull bridge rectiIier. According to the
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theory oI the bridge rectiIier, the current will have two
directions at the primary side but only one direction at the
secondary side |14|. However, losses in a normal diode bridge
rectiIier can be an issue and cannot be ignored. To overcome
this problem, the synchronous rectiIier is used in the
simulation instead.
IV. COMPARISON AND SIMULATION RESULTS
A. Theoretical Efficiency Comparison

Fig. 7. Energy Ilow oI driving mode oI the ordinary system

In the ordinary series-wound DC motor system while
driving the vehicle, the energy Irom the electrical source has
to cover all the losses and mechanical driving energy as shown
in Fig.7. The switching loss is due to the MOSFETs, Iield and
armature winding losses are caused by the resistance.

Fig. 8. Energy Ilow oI braking mode oI the ordinary system

In the braking mode oI the ordinary system, it uses an
external braking source to supply mechanical power to stop
the driving vehicle. Due to Iriction, the total mechanical
energy will be transIormed to heat and be dissipated. Also, the
total mechanical energy will not only be the external braking
power but also include the mechanical energy oI the moving
vehicle.

Fig. 9. Energy Ilow oI driving mode oI the proposed system
In Fig.9, the graph displays how the electrical energy is
consumed during driving cycles. Compared to the energy
losses showed in Fig.7, this system has more energy loss due
to the synchronous rectiIier. Hence the proposed system is not
as eIIicient as the ordinary series-wound DC motor system in
theory while the vehicle is in driving mode. However, the
energy loss in the synchronous rectiIier is usually very small.

Fig. 10. Energy Ilow oI regenerative braking mode oI the proposed
system

In the proposed system, the braking energy would be
utilized to regenerate energy. By observing Fig.10, the energy
losses oI the proposed system must be small so that the
regenerated energy will be enough to slow down the moving
vehicle and charge the battery during the braking process.
Compared to the conventional braking system shown in Fig.8,
the regenerated energy will be an advantage. Hence iI the
certainty oI regenerated energy can be guaranteed, the
proposed system is more eIIicient compared to the ordinary
system.
B. Simulation Results ana Comparison

Fig. 11. Speed input (a) and Torque results (b) oI the ordinary system
In Fig.11, the top graph shows NEDC speed input and the
bottom graph shows the driving torque and the braking torque.
As shown, the black bars are the driving torque and it only
occurs when the speed is increasing. On the other hand, the
grey bars are displaying the braking torque required to slow
down the vehicle. Also, the braking torque is extra-ordinarily
high at some points, which means it requires quite an amount
oI energy to slow down the vehicle. Eventually, this energy
will be dissipated as heat |15|.
Braking Energy
Switching Loss
Field windings
Loss
Armature
Windings Loss
Regenerated Energy
RectiIication Loss
Battery Energy
Switching Loss
Field windings
Loss
Armature
Windings Loss
Mechanical Energy
RectiIication Loss
Mechanical Energy
Braking energy & Heat
Energy oI Battery
Switching Loss
Field windings
Loss
Armature
Windings Loss
Mechanical Energy
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Fig. 12. Speed input (a) and Torque results (b) oI the proposed system

By observing the graph above, it is obvious that the
generated torque has negative values, and this torques is used
as the braking torque. Hence it proves that the proposed
system has a regenerative braking Iunction. Besides, some
negative values are approximately minus sixty that is
remarkable Ior a braking torque. Compared to the highest
braking torque value in Fig.11, it proves that the system can
supply most oI the torque Ior braking purposes.

Fig. 13. Battery Power (a) and Battery energy consumption (b) oI the
ordinary system

In Fig.13, the top graph shows the power values and the
bottom one shows the energy consumed Irom the battery
during the whole NEDC driving cycle. AIter 1200 seconds,
the total consumed energy is approximately 2.35 MJ.

Fig. 14. Battery Power (a) and Battery energy consumption (b) oI the
proposed system

The bottom Iigure in Fig.14 shows the energy
consumption oI the proposed system during the whole NEDC
cycle. Compared to the Iigure oI consumed energy in Fig.13, it
is obvious that the slope oI this Iunction has negative values
which mean the consumed energy decreases. This is because
oI the regenerative braking. Hence the Iinal consumed energy
is approximately 1.73 MJ.
C. Numeric Efficiency Comparison of Simulation
From the analysis oI all the Iigures in above section, all the
losses can be calculated and the eIIiciencies oI both ordinary
series-wound system and the proposed series-wound system
can be estimated. There are three comparisons in this section:
acceleration Mode, braking Mode and total consumed energy
Irom battery.

TABLE I
ENERGY DISTRIBUTION IN ACCELERATING MODE
The ordinary
system
The proposed
system
Energy Irom the
battery
100 (2.35 MJ) 100 (2.35 MJ)
Switching Loss 2.26 (0.0611MJ) 2.01 (0.0472 MJ)
RectiIication loss 0 (0.00 MJ) 0.78 (0.0183MJ)
Machine Loss
(Armature and Field)
14.74 (0.346 MJ) 12.01 (0.282 MJ)
Mechanical
Energy
82.99 (1.95 MJ) 85.11 (2.00 MJ)

Comparing Iigures in Table I, the energy losses oI
switching and machine loss are low. The possible reason
might be the Iull bridge switching modiIication. Though the
proposed system has extra losses due to the rectiIication, it can
still generate 2.12 more the mechanical power Ior
acceleration.
TABLE II
MECHANICAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION IN BRAKING MODE
The ordinary
system
The proposed
system
Mechanical Energy
Irom the moving
Vehicle
100
(1.95 MJ)
100
(2.00 MJ)
Braking Energy 40.02
(0.780 MJ)
0
(0.00 MJ)
Heat & wasted 59.98
(1.170 MJ)
59.98
(1.2 MJ)
Switching Loss 0 0.696
(0.0139 MJ)
RectiIication loss 0 0.784
(0.0157 MJ)
Machine Loss
(Armature and Field)
0 8.084
(0.162 MJ)
Battery Energy 0 30.95
(0.619 MJ)

According to Table II, the proposed system has 30.95
regenerated energy Irom the mechanical energy oI the moving
vehicle and the ordinary system doesn`t have any regenerated
power. Though the ordinary system does not have any loss in
electric devices, all the mechanical energy Iinally would be
wasted due to the use oI conventional braking system.
2012 7th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA) 1661




TABLE III
ENERGY DISTRIBUTION OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM DURING ONE DRIVING
CYCLE
The proposed system
Energy Irom the
Battery
100 (2.35 MJ)
Mechanical energy 85.11 (2.00 MJ)
Switching Loss 0.591 (0.0139 MJ)
RectiIication loss 0.668 (0.0157 MJ)
Machine Loss
(Armature and Field)
6.89 (0.162 MJ)
Regenerated
electrical Energy
26.34 (0.619 MJ)

In Table III, the Iigures describes the energy Ilows oI the
proposed system during one driving cycle, which means the
vehicle is Iirst accelerated Irom zero speed to top speed and
then braked. Also, regenerated energy is obtained Irom the
braking energy. Hence both oI the acceleration mode and the
brake mode are involved. Furthermore, the energy is Iirstly
transIormed Irom electrical energy to mechanical energy
during the acceleration mode and then transIormed back to
electrical energy during the brake mode. As is shown, the
mechanical energy that transIormed Irom electrical energy is
only 40.02. This is because only such amount oI energy is
required to stop a moving vehicle and only the braking energy
can be used to regenerate electrical power. Consequently, the
regenerated energy rate oI the whole system is 26.34 Irom a
100 electrical energy source.

As discussed in Section IV, the total consumed energy oI an
ordinary series-wound DC motor system is 2.35 MJ during a
typical NEDC cycle. And the total consumed energy oI the
proposed series-wound DCF motor system with regenerative
braking Iunction will only take up to 1.73 MJ. Hence the
potential increase oI the driving range is 26.34. In another
words, the vehicle with the new proposed regenerative braking
system will run 26.34 Iurther than the vehicle with the
ordinary non-regenerative braking series-wound DC motor
system.
V. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a proposed regenerative series-wound DC
motor system and an ordinary series-wound DC motor system
are presented and compared by simulations. In these
simulations, both closed-loop systems are controlled by two PI
controllers. The Iirst controller is established Ior torque
control and the second controller is designed Ior speed control.
The control method involves pulse-width modulation and
cascaded control loop method. The input parameters Ior the
DC motor model used in Simulink are obtained by its real
world example (FB1-4001) and also utilizing a 'Look-up
table Ior the voltage constant. The diIIerences between the
ordinary system and the proposed system are: the ordinary
system utilizes halI bridge switching conIiguration; the
proposed system takes advantages oI Iull bridge conIiguration
and a rectiIier at the Iield windings side. The reasons are: 1)
The Iull bridge switching conIiguration would provide two
directions oI armature current; 2) the idea oI using the rectiIier
is to limit the direction oI the Iield current. With above
properties, the proposed system would have regenerative
braking advantage compared to the ordinary system. AIter
simulation setups and Iigures comparison, the authors have
discovered that the proposed regenerative series-wound
system has advantages oI low energy loss, energy regenerative
rate oI 30.95 and high eIIiciency. These advantages results
in that the driving range oI the regenerative series-wound
system is 27 more than the driving range oI an ordinary
series-wound system. In conclusion, this paper proves that the
regenerative braking property makes the proposed series
wound system more suitable than an ordinary series wound dc
motor system Ior electric vehicle. Furthermore, the proposed
DC motor system is competitive with AC motor system that is
currently used in electric vehicles.
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1662 2012 7th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)