Electric transit bus for variable grade terrain

Author

Baker, Bryce C. ; Faddis, Terry N. ; Strunk, Gavin P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

4-8 March 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

5

Abstract

This paper overviews the design changes necessary to convert an AVS-22 electric bus to an in-vehicle component testbed. These changes include the addition of a data acquisition system and a modular control system that will be adaptable with changing components. The majority of this paper discusses the need for the bus to climb 25% grades, and how battery chemistry significantly affects hill climb performance. An equivalent capacity LI battery pack weighs 1620 kg less than the current LA battery pack. This corresponds to a reduction in required traction motor torque by 557 Nm and a peak power reduction of 132 kW. The weight reduction correlates to a reduction of the gear ratio by one, in the transmission. Therefore, the LI battery pack allows the bus to go up a 25% grade hill, without experiencing a significant drop in vehicle performance.

Keywords

battery powered vehicles; data acquisition; machine control; secondary cells; torque control; traction motors; AVS-22 electric bus; battery chemistry; chemistry capacity LI battery pack; data acquisition system; electric transit bus; gear ratio; hill climb performance; in-vehicle component testbed; modular control system; peak power reduction; traction motor torque; variable grade terrain; vehicle performance; Acceleration; Batteries; Gears; Mathematical model; Torque; Traction motors; Vehicles; electric; hill climb; transit bus;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electric Vehicle Conference (IEVC), 2012 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Greenville, SC

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1562-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEVC.2012.6183200

Filename

6183200