2010 International Conference on Electrical and Control Engineering

Regenerative brake system in electric hoist with

ultracacapacitor
Yongming Bian

Lijing Zhu

College of Mechanical Engineering,

Tongji University
Shanghai, China
ymbianmail@163.com

College of Mechanical Engineering,

Tongji University
Shanghai, China
zhulijing126@126.com

Xinming Xu
College of Mechanical Engineering,
Tongji University
Shanghai, China
xuxinming@live.com

AbstractA novel regenerative brake system in electric hoist is

proposed and a PSIM hoist simulation model is established in
this paper. A PI closed-loop control strategy has been used for
regulating the duty cycle of SPWM, in order to control the signal
of the DC/DC converter and the charge-discharge current of the
ultracapacitor. The no-load experiment on the characteristics of
the ultracapacitor has been carried out. On this basis, an
ultracapacitor system for an electric hoist is implemented. The
efficiency of energy recuperation was 65% at a 10A chargedischarge current of ultracapacitor.

the power network, which is bound to cause polluted. So an

energy storage system is very necessary. Ultracapacitor is
selected as the energy storage system for hoist, because this
technology offers distinct advantages compared with battery
for energy storage. These advantages include[1]: high charge
rates, high efficiency, high power density, long cycle life, no
maintenace and so on. Energy is stored up when ultracapacitor
is charged and energy released when ultracapacitor is
discharged.

Keywords-component;
regenerative
ultracapacitor; SPWM; DC/DC converter

Ultracapacitors, also known as supercapacitors or

electrochemical capacitors, utilize high surface area electrode
materials and thin electroytic dielectrics to achieve
capacitances several orders of magnitude larger than
conventional capacitors[2]. Having this feature, ultracapacitors
are able to attain greater energy densities while still maintain
the characteristic high power density of conventional
capacitors. Many methods had been proposed to use
ultracapacitor in the regenerative braking system[3-6].

I.

brake

system;

INTRODUCTION

The electric hoist used for lifting loads, is usually

consisted of a PMSM(permanet magnet synchronous motor),
flexible couplings, a triple reduction gear, a roller and an
electromagnetic brake system. With many advantages for
instance, high versatility, compact structure, light quality,
heavy load, and easily moved, the electric hoist broadly
applies to building, hydraulic engineering, forestry, mine,
dock, as well ulilized as automatic operating line corollary
equipment. In this paper, the main parameters of hoist is in the
following table.
TABLE I.

THE MAIN PARAMETERS OF THE HOIST

Value

Parameter
PMSM

BCH180

rated load (KN)

10

total ratio

60.57

lifting height (m)

load mass (kg)

700

motor power(kw)

7.5

II.

A. Ultracapacitors Introduction [7-8]

Ultracapacitor is a high power density energy storage
device. Comparing with a conventional capacitor,
ultracapacitors with the same weight can store 2000 to 6000
times energy. The ultracapacitor discharge current value
reaches to thousands amperes and the energy density is several
hundreds of times of an electrolytic capacitor. Further more, its
instantaneous discharge power is a dozen times of the battery.
In addition, ultracapacitor is high efficiency and excellent
operational life. The performance of electrolytic capacitor,
ultracapacitor and lead-acid batteries are shown in Table 2.
TABLE II.

COMPARISON PERFORMANCE OF SEVERAL ELECTROCHEMICAL

ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE

performance

Under power driven state, the electric motor will extract

usable energy from the power supply and work under electric
driven when hoisting. In this case, the electrical energy changes
into gravitational potential energy. However, when load falls
down, the motor can realize torque and inverse-rotation brake
and works as a generator delivering the recovered energy into

energy density

Bian Yongming
978-0-7695-4031-3/10 $26.00 2010 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/iCECE.2010.1445

ENERGY STORAGE DEVICE

4014

Electrolytic
Capacitor

Ultracapacitor

lead-acid
Batteries

10~100

5~10

0.01~0.1

power density

<1000

<10000

<100000

cycle life

1000

>500000

>500000

charging time

1~5h

1~30s

10-6~10-3s

performance

Electrolytic
Capacitor

Ultracapacitor

lead-acid
Batteries

discharge time

0.3~3h

1~30s

10-6~10-3s

charge-discharge
efficiency

0.5~0.85

0.85~0.98

>0.95

In this paper, the ultracapacitor is used the products of

Kamcap Company, comprising of 120 unites in series. The
ultracapacitor actual working voltage range from 200V to
300V dc with the rated capacity of 3.3 farads and the
maximum charge current 60A.
B. Supercapacitor Charging Circuit DC/DC Converter
The diagram of the DC/DC converter is shown in Figure 1
(a). When the values of the inductance L and the capacitance C
are both high enough, the values of inductor IL and capacitor
voltage C, namely load voltage uo, are both constant.
The DC/DC converter works in two ways[4]: boost
operation, used for acceleration which discharges the
ultracapacitor; and buck operation used for deceleration, which
charges the ultracapacitor. During boost operation, the switch
V is on, the energy is taken from electrical source and stored in
the inductor L. At present, the current is i1 and its direction is
shown in Figure 1. The voltage of the capacitor C is almost
constant. When V is switched off, energy stored in the inductor
L is transferred into C, in this case the current is i2, the
direction is also shown in Figure 1.

(b)
Figure 1. DC/DC configuration diagrame

During the steady state, at a cycle T the voltage uL across

inductor L integral of time is zero, that is,
T

u L dt = 0

works in buck operation, so the DC/DC converter is also

called boost-buck Chopper.
The current i1 and i2 of the load are shown in Figure 1. I1
and I2 respesent the two average values respectively. If there is
sufficiently low pulse current, the following formula is founded

I1 ton
=
I 2 toff

(4)

From the above statement, there is

I2 =

toff
ton

I1 =

I1

(5)

If V, VD are used without lossing, then

EI1 = U o I 2

(6)

The output power and input power are equal, so buck-boost

circuit can be seen as direct current transformer.
C. Control Strategy of DC/DC converter
During the process of dropping load, the motor generates
electricity. The regenerative energy is fed back to
ultracapacitor through the freewheeling diode rectifier, which
is associated with the inverter and used as DC/DC converter.
Whlie lifting loads, the converter introduces energy from
ultracapacitor to motor. The current of ultracapacitor is
controlled by the current across the DC/DC converter.

(a)

ton
t

(3)
E = on E =
E
1
toff
T ton
If the value of the ratio is changed, the output voltage
can be not equal to the supply voltage. When 0 < < 1 2 , it
works in the way of boost operation, when 1 2 < < 1 , it

The DC converter current becomes pulsating current as

IGBT(insulated gate bipolar transistor) periodically turning on
and off, however, the output current maintains a continuous
smooth, owing to the effect of inductance coil, freewheeling
diode and filter capacitor. If the load is resistive, the output DC
voltage also shows continuous smooth. To ensure the system
working in a safe, reliable and high efficient condition, some
variables are needed, such as the voltage and the current of the
ultracapacitor, the voltage of the link bus. The regenerative
control scheme are shown in figure 2 and figure 3. The
charging process of the ultracapacitor is controlled by a second
current-control loop.

(1)

When V is on, u L = E ; but when V is off , u L = u o . So,

Eton = U otoff

(2)

Figure 2. control principle of DC/DC converter when ultracapacitor charged

Therefore, the output voltage is

4015

I(C3)
25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.0
-5.00
Vm
1.00
0.50
0.0
-0.50
-1.00
Vout
200.40
200.30
200.20
200.10
200.00

Figure 3. control principle of DC/DC converter when ultracapacitor

discharged

Vpwm
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.0

To evaluate the effectiveness and availability of the control

principle of the regenerative braking system, the system PSIM
simulation models of DC/DC converter are established under
buck and boost operation condition. The simulation models
are illustrated in in Figure 4.

0.0

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

Time (ms)

(a) Buck simulation results

I(C3)
0.0
-5.00
-10.00
-15.00
-20.00
-25.00
-30.00
Vout

0.001 1

0 20

0.001 1

300

PI

PI

Vpwm
L1
VDC1
566

576.00
574.00
572.00
570.00
568.00
566.00
564.00

300

0.004

566

Vsuper

Vout

250.00
249.90

0.003

249.80

3.3

249.70

200

249.60
Vpwm
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.0

Vm
1 -1
V

0.0

10.00

20.00

30.00

40.00

50.00

Time (ms)

VTRI1

(b)Boost simulation results

current pi should faster than voltage pi

current limit must be used

Figure 5. simulation results

(a)Buck converter simulation model

V

Vout

25
0

0.001 0.1

60

L1

566
0.003

0.001 5

PI

Vpwm

575

PI

Vsuper
V

0.004

Vpwmdown

3.3
250
Vm
1 -1
V

2
15000
0.5
-1

The no-load experiment is carried out during a cycle-life of

the ultracapacitor at 5A. Figure 6 shows the experiment results,
including the velcity of motor, the ultracapacitor current, DC
link voltage and ultracapacitor voltage. The data shows that its
discharging and charging time is about 170s and 45s in a cycle.
The DC link voltage is about 570V when ultracapacitor is
discharged, but 540V when charged. During hoisting the load,
the ultracapacitor output voltage is higher than the power
supply at DC link, ensures using the regenerative energy firstly.

-1

The Velcity of Motor

VTRI1

V(r/min)

2
15000
0.5
-1

current pi should faster than voltage pi

current limit must be used

vol(V)

(b)Boost converter simulation model

2000
0
-2000

Figure 4. DC / DC converter simulation model built by PSIM

vol(V)

I(A)

Shown in Figure 5, the charging current of the simulation

models is 20A, the charging voltage increases at 6V/s speed,
and the power increases about 82.5KW. While during the
discharging, the ultracapacitor current is 25A, the voltage of
the DC link is 570V. Moreover, the time of completely
discharge the ultracapacitor is 14s. The results show that
ultracapacitor can deliever higher power within a shorter period.

700
600
500

10
0
-10

300
200
100

50

50

50

50

100

250

300

100
150
200
time(s)
The Current of Super-capacitors

250

300

100
150
200
time(s)
The Voltage of Super-capacitors

250

300

250

300

100

150
200
time(s)
The Voltage of DC

150
time(s)

200

Figure 6. curves of a super capacitor charge-discharge test in conditions

when motor no-load

4016

III.

ENERGY RECOVERY DEVICES EXPERIMENT

A. Energy recovery device for the hoist

Based on ultracapacitor, energy recovery device for electric
hoist consists of three major components: a motor module
an ultracapacitor modulea supervisory control module, as
illustrated in figure 7.
The motor module mainly includes a transducer and a
motor. The transducer converts the energy to meet the need of
the motor. The ultracapacitor module includes DC/DC
converter, the ultracapacitor and detection systems. The
DC/DC converter is connected to the ultracapacitor, which
used as the charging-discharging circuit for ultracapacitor.
The detection systems is used for monitoring the voltage,
current and temperature of the ultracapcitor, to ensure its
reliability. The most important component of supervisory
control module is a microprocessor that features the
coordination between various energy sources for the energy
supply, transits the state of the DC/DC converter between
buck and boost operation, and it also controls the motor speed
and direction by the transducer. It also generates SPWM
singles for DC/DC converter to control the current of the
ultracapacitor not to exceed a previously established current
limit.

Figure 8. regenerative brake system main circuit

Figure 9. laboratory setup

Figure 7. regenerative brake system of electric hoist main functions

Figure 8 shows the equivalent circuit of regenerative brake

system and figure 9 shows the picture of experimental
apparatus. When hoisting loads, the system automatically
switches to electromotion state. The ultracapacitor delivers the
energy to the motor. During lowing loads , the hoist motor
works as a generator and products electricity.

B. Working process of the hoist recovery system as follows:

When the loads fall down, if the motor rotate speed is
greater than 30rpm and the ultracapacitor votage is less
than 300V, the DC/DC converter will work in buck
operation and charges the ultracapacitor. During this
process, when the ultracapacitor voltage is up to 300V,
the ultracapacitor will be cut off and the electric
resistance braking will be adopted.

When the motor works as a generator, due to potential

energy or inertia, its speed is faster than synchronous speed, so
regenerative braking energy is producted. Renewable energy is
back to the DC link though freewheeling diode rectifier
associated with rectifier. Since the rectifier adopts a common
diode rectifer bridge, the renewable energy can not be
delivered back to the power network. Then the pumping
voltage is boost at DC link and the ultracapacitor is charged
through the DC/DC converter.

4017

During the process of hoisting loads, in case of the

motor speed is larger than 5rpm and the ultracapacitor
voltage is higher than 200V, the DC/DC converter will
work in boost operation and discharge the
ultracapacitor. When the ultracapacitor voltage is less
than 200V, the motor will be fed by AC 380V power to
replace the ultracapacitor.

To realize a safe, reliable and efficient operation, the

ultracapacitor is charged and discharged at various
constant-current under 20A, with working voltage in
the range of 200-300V.

C. Test results
Figure 10 showes the instantaneous trace of current and
voltage of the ultracapacitor on the screen of oscilloscope when
the loads being lowered. The direction of current illustrates the
ultracapacitor is being charged during this process. The voltage
value shows that the ultracapacitor is charged for about onethird of the totle time during this process.

vol(V)

V(r/min)

The Velcity of Motor

I(A)

The electric potential energy equation of the ultracapacitor

vol(V)

1
2
2
is as follows E e = C U const U int . The gravitational
2
potential energy of load is EG = mgh . Figure 11 showes the
test results including DC link voltage, the motor speed, the
instantaneous currents and actual voltage of the ultracapacitor
at 5A charge-discharge current of ultracapacitor. As the Figure
11 shows, the voltage of the DC link is about 600V when the
ultracapacitor is charged and 570V when discharged. When the
load go lower, the voltage of ultracapacitance goes up from
200V to 228V. The efficiancy of the gravitational potential
energy changing into the ultracapacitor electric potential is
= 0.58 . Fig.12 shows the test results at 10A chargedischarge current of ultracapacitor. When the load is being
lowered, the voltage of ultracapacitor visess from 200V to
232V, and the regeneration energy efficiancy is = 0.65 .

V(r/min)

vol(V)
I(A)
vol(V)

650
600
550

10
0
-10

250
200
150

10

20

30
time(s)
The Voltage of DC

40

50

10

[2]

60

10

10

30
40
time(s)
The Current of Super-capacitors

50

20
30
40
time(s)
The Voltage of Super-capacitors

50

60

50

60

20

30
time(s)

40

10

30
40
time(s)
The Voltage of DC

50

60

70

20

30
40
50
time(s)
The Current of Super-capacitors

60

70

10

20

60

70

10

20

60

70

30
40
50
time(s)
The Voltage of Super-capacitors

30

40

50

CONCLUSION

An ultracapacitor system for an electric hoist has been

proposed. The object of this system was to obtain maximum
energy recovery. In order to do this, a bidirectional DC/DC
converter has been adopt and a PI control method has been
presented. The system measures the DC link voltage, the
ultracapcitor state, the motor speed, the instantaneous currents
and actual voltage of the ultracapacitor. Simulation and
experimental study have been carried on to evaluate overall
system efficiency and characteristics of the ultracapacitor.
The results show that more than half of the reduced
gravitational potential energy is reclaimed. Therefore
concluding, the ultracapacitor can be used by itself as energystorage device for the electric hoist.

[4]

20

250
200
150

20

IV.

[5]
0

20
0
-20

10

Figure 12. Ultracapacitor charge-discharge current of 10A experimental

results

[3]

The Velcity of Motor

2000
0
-2000

700
600
500

time(s)

[1]
Figure 10. the current and the voltage of the ultracapacitance

2000
0
-2000

60

[6]

[7]
[8]

Figure 11. Ultracapacitor charge-discharge current of 5A experimental results

4018

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