Energy management strategy for a parallel hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a battery/ultra-capacitor hybrid energy storage system

To solve the low power density issue of hybrid electric vehicular batteries, a combination of batteries and ultracapacitors (UCs) could be a solution. The high power density feature of UCs can improve the performance of battery/UC hybrid energy storage systems (HESSs). This paper presents a parallel hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) equipped with an internal combus- tion engine and an HESS. An advanced energy management strategy (EMS), mainly based on fuzzy logic, is proposed to improve the fuel economy of the HEV and the endurance of the HESS. The EMS is capable of determining the ideal distribution of output power among the internal combustion engine, battery, and UC according to the propelling power or regenerative braking power of the vehicle. To validate the effectiveness of the EMS, numerical simulation and experimental validations are carried out. The results indicate that EMS can effectively control the power sources to work within their respective efficient areas. The battery load can be mitigated and prolonged battery life can be expected. The electrical energy consumption in the HESS is reduced by 3.91% compared with that in the battery only system. Fuel consumption of the HEV is reduced by 24.3% compared with that of the same class conventional vehicles under Economic Commission of Europe driving cycle.