Parametric design and regenerative braking control of a parallel hydraulic hybrid vehicle

Abstract Hydraulic hybrid technologies improve the fuel economy of city-use medium duty vehicles by recovering braking energy and reusing it for driving, most notably vehicle launching. In this paper, a parametric design of hydraulic driving system for a medium duty truck is conducted based on its power demand in typical urban driving cycles. The braking control strategy is designed considering both the safety regulations and braking energy recovery rate. The proportional relationship of hydraulic pump/motor output torque and its working pressure is considered when designing the braking control strategy. The influence of the high pressure accumulator minimum working pressure and the corresponding gas volume at the minimum pressure on the braking energy recovery rate is analyzed. The simulation results show that the proposed hydraulic driving system and braking control strategy helps greatly increase the braking energy recovery rate. Besides, different vehicle mass and load distributions are investigated to analyze the regenerative braking effect on various loading conditions.