An ultracapacitor bank for an Electric Vehicle has been simulated. The purpose of this device is to allow higher accelerations and decelerations of the vehicle with minimal loss of energy, and minimal degradation of the main battery pack. The system uses an IGBT Buck-Boost converter, and the control of the system measures the battery voltage, the battery state-of-charge, the car speed, the instantaneous currents in both the terminals (load and ultracapacitor), and the actual voltage of the ultracapacitor. The simulations showed that the control system can work properly, taking in account all the aforementioned variables. Next step in this work is to implement and install the ultracapacitor system in an electric car. This car is a Chevrolet LUV truck, similar in shape and size to a Chevrolet S-10, which was already converted to an electric car at the Catholic University of Chile. It is interesting to mention that, if ultracapacitor reaches in the future, a specific energy of at least 20 Wh/kg (at this moment some laboratory samples reach 10 Wh/kg), it will be possible to implement EVs with ultracapacitors only. They could give a range of 100 kms with a 500 kgs capacitor bank, with very short charging time and excellent life expectancy. The EV will be able to be fully charged in few minutes. Besides, the ultracapacitor could last all the vehicle useful life.
Regenerative braking for an electric vehicle using ultracapacitors and a buck-boost converter
Rückgewinnung der Bremsenergie eines Elektrofahrzeugs mit Hilfe einer Ultrakondensatorbank und eines Zusatzenergiekonverters
2000
12 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 6 Quellen
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
Tests Results with Regenerative Braking Based on Ultracapacitors and a Buck-Boost Converter
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001
|Ultracapacitors + DC-DC Converter in a Regenerative Braking System
Online Contents | 2002
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