Analysis of the regenerative braking process for the urban traffic conditions

In a regular drive system, with an internal combustion engine, vehicle braking is connected with the unproductive dissipation of kinetic and potential energy accumulated in the mass of the vehicle into the environment. This energy can constitute up to 70% of the energy used to drive a vehicle under urban conditions. Its recovery and reuse is one of the basic advantages of hybrid and electric vehicles. Modern traffic management systems as well as navigation systems should take into account the possibility of the energy recovery in the process of regenerative braking. For this purpose, a model of a regenerative braking process may be helpful, which on the one hand will enable to provide information on how traffic conditions will affect the amount of energy dissipated (wasted) into the atmosphere, on the other hand will help to optimize the route of vehicles with regenerative braking systems. This work contains an analysis of the process of the regenerative braking for the urban traffic conditions registered in Gdańsk. A model was also presented that allows calculating the amount of energy available from the braking process depending on the proposed variables characterizing the vehicle traffic conditions.