DESIGN & SIMULATION REGENERATIVE BRAKING SYSTEM

Abstract

Regenerative braking is an energy-recovery technique used in electric and hybrid vehicles to improve energy efficiency by converting a portion of the vehicle's kinetic energy into electrical energy during deceleration. Conventional friction braking dissipates most of the available kinetic energy as heat, whereas regenerative braking allows the electric motor to operate as a generator and return electrical energy to the battery. This paper presents the design and simulation of a regenerative braking system for an electric vehicle using a motor-generator, battery, motor controller, and braking control strategy. A representative MATLAB/Simulink model is developed to investigate vehicle speed, braking torque, regenerative current, battery state of charge, and recovered energy. Simulation is performed under different initial speeds and braking conditions. The representative results show that regenerative braking significantly improves energy recovery compared with conventional friction braking. At an initial vehicle speed of 60 km/h, the proposed system demonstrates approximately 128 Wh of recovered energy under the selected simulation condition, with regenerative braking contributing approximately 68% recovery efficiency for the modeled braking event. The battery state of charge increases from approximately 70.0% to 71.6% during the representative event. The results demonstrate that regenerative braking can reduce energy losses and improve the overall efficiency of electric vehicle propulsion systems.