Gear Ratio Optimization of a Multi-Speed Transmission for Electric Dump Truck Operating on the Structure Route

Research demonstrated that the application of a multi-speed transmission could improve the dynamic and economic performance of electric vehicles. This paper deals with a novel multi-speed transmission for the electric dump truck (EDT) operating on the structure route (SR), which has a definite starting point and end point without complex traffic conditions. To optimize the gear ratio and shift schedule to reduce energy consumption in such conditions, the mathematical model of the transmission and the dynamic model of the EDT are initially required. Following this, the shift schedule is presented according to the motor efficiency map. After that, the gear ratio optimization is carried out by a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Moreover, the proposed EDT is compared with an EDT with a single-speed transmission. The simulation results show that the energy consumption is reduced by 6.1%.