Regenerative braking system design for an energy recuperative eddy current retarder

This paper presents an energy recuperative eddy current retarder (ERECR), which offers a solution to the energy consumption and overheating issues of the conventional eddy current retarders (ECR). The ERECR obtains three main systems, namely Eddy Current Braking (ECB) system, Regenerative Braking (RGB) system, and Electrical Control System. The RGB system, which could recover the kinetic energy from downhill and the braking condition, is mainly concerned in this research. By proposing a novel designed generator integrated with the dual-plate eddy current retarder, the RGB system could generate electric energy to fulfill the energy demand of ECB system while offering respective braking torque. First, the energy flows for the vehicle braking, and degrading was analyzed and the energy recovery potential under these conditions was calculated. Subsequently, the RGB system model was based on the fundamentals of the permanent magnet synchronous generator, and the thought of embed permanent magnet in the rotor axle of the ERECR was proposed as well. After analyzing the power generating characteristics, energy recovery and braking performance of the RGB system, an optimization strategy of maximizing the regenerated energy for the RGB system was present. The result shows that, the novel designed RGB system could significantly overcome the overheating issues of the conventional eddy current retarder while harvesting the kinetic energy from degrading and braking with a maximum value of 3kW.