Date of Award

6-2020

Degree Name

Master of Science in Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Zachary Asher

Second Advisor

Dr. Richard Meyer

Third Advisor

Dr. Jennifer Hudson

Keywords

Bus electrification, dynamic wireless power transfer, electric vehicles, fast charging on- route, high-fidelity electric vehicle modeling

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Electrifying cars, buses and trucks is an attractive means to reduce energy use and emissions, because it involves minimal restructuring of the transportation network. Transit buses drive fixed routes, minimizing driver range anxiety by properly sizing energy storage system but the major challenge to fully electrifying transit buses, is the amount of energy they consume in a day of driving. To enable a full day of operation, batteries need to be large, which is expensive and heavy. This work utilizes real-world transit bus data fed to a battery electric drive-train model to co-optimize charger locations, charger power levels, and vehicle battery sizes. The electrification study expands to Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer. When applied, in-motion WPT additionally relives range anxiety, it reduces battery size consequently increasing fuel economy, and it increases the battery life through charge sustaining approach. In existing research, small-scale infrastructure studies have been achieved but additional research is needed for improved fidelity. The work represents to a novel, large-scale integration of numerous research methodologies into a comprehensive study to thoroughly address potential in-motion WPT usage situations. High fidelity modeling of in-motion WPT will be implemented on hybrid electric and EVs in MATLAB/Simulink & Python. ANL’s Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) Model is also included in the analysis to accurately compare energy usage for all vehicle architectures. The outcomes of the study show that the transit bus electrification and in-motion charging using WPT presents both economic and environmental advantages when contrasted with ordinary ICE transportation and a long range EV fleet.

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