Research of Regenerative Braking System for Electrified Buses Equipped with a Brake Resistor

The brake resistors are widely used in locomotives, heavy machines, elevators and other devices. To further exploit the potential of brake energy regeneration, brake resistors can be introduced into regenerative braking system of electrified vehicles. A new type of regenerative braking system with a brake resistor applied is proposed and researched in this paper. Based on typical downhill condition and Chinese typical urban bus driving cycle, the regenerative braking performances of series and parallel types of hybrid electric buses with a brake resistor equipped are simulated and analyzed respectively. The analysis results show that the system proposed is advantageous with respect to brake safety, regenerative capacity and system lifetime. And selecting references of brake resistors for regenerative braking system of hybrid electric buses are also provided.