50 Mobile 2006 Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Bosch Rexroth AG Bosch Rexroth AG Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System

ostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Mobile 2006 51

Environment The Hydrostatic Regenerative

Particularly in North America and Europe, legislators demand increas-
ingly drastic reductions in pollutant emissions with the TIER and EURO Brake System from Rexroth
standards. Also attracting the interest of the public in Europe is the dis-
cussion on the effects of fine particulates. In this respect, the hydrostatic
regenerative brake system (HRB) from Rexroth makes a significant con- With the hydrostatic regenerative brake system (HRB), Rexroth combines
tribution to reducing emissions and fine particulates. the advantages of hybrid concepts with the high power density of hydraulic
accumulators for economical use in commercial vehicles and mobile equip-
ment. The result: fuel savings of up to 35 percent. The system consists of
Energy components which are either in or nearly in series production and requires
only minor modifications to existing drive trains. As a result, the HRB is sui-
The finiteness of fossil resources and the continuous increase in global
table as both original equipment as well as for retrofitting vehicle fleets.
energy constitutes one of the key challenges for the coming decades. For
this reason, it will become increasingly important to use existing fuels effi-
ciently. In this regard, the hydrostatic regenerative brake system (HRB)
from Rexroth, with fuel savings of up to 35 percent, makes a significant
contribution to energy savings and simultaneously reduces operating Frank Nagel
Elchingen (D)
costs.

Dr. Christine Ehret

Elchingen (D)
52 Mobile 2006 Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB)
1 Increasing interest in
hybrid technology for com-
mercial vehicles and mobi-
le working machines
In times of high oil prices, fuel-saving
technologies in drive systems become
increasingly attractive. Gathering
considerable attention are the current
activities in the field of hybrid drives.
The driving forces behind the hybrid
drive are increasing fuel costs and in-
creasing environmental awareness due
to emissions legislation.
Common to all concepts of hybrid
drives is the fact that they operate
the combustion engine at operating
points at which maximum efficiency
is achieved.
This allows the hybrid drive to reduce
fuel consumption and at the same
time, the emissions of the combustion
engine are reduced considerably, as
the unfavorable operating points with
poor efficiency are, for the most part,
eliminated [1].
With HRB this is performed by tem-
porarily storing brake energy. At the
unfavorable operating points of the
combustion engine, the drive draws
upon the stored energy.
2 Storage systems
Important parameters for the char-
acterization of accumulators include
the power density [W/kg] and energy
density [Wh/kg]. The Ragone diagram
(Fig. 1) illustrates both features.
At the current state of technology, a
large challenge is the relatively low
power density of electrical storage
media. Due to their high internal
resistance, both fuel cells as well as
batteries have a low power density
and are only conditionally suitable for
recovering brake energy. Moreover,
cyclical charging and discharging con-
siderably reduces the service life.
Hydraulic bladder accumulators offer
considerable advantages over electric
accumulators with regards to recover-
ing brake energy. In this type of ac-
cumulator, the gas is contained in a
Fig. 1: Ragone diagram.
Bosch Rexroth AG
bladder made of a high-strength ma-
terial. Bladder accumulators are nearly
maintenance-free and are, therefore,
commonly used in hydraulic applica-
tions. Standard versions operate with
nominal pressures between 350 and
400 bar.
Rexroth is using these specific charac-
teristics to now open the advantages
of the hybrid drive to commercial ve-
hicles and mobile working machines.
With the hydrostatic regenerative
brake system (HRB), Rexroth has
developed a system solution which
directs the otherwise unused energy
generated during braking to the hy-
draulic accumulator (Fig. 2). During
the next acceleration event, the ac-
cumulator supplies enough energy
in a controlled manner to effectively
reduce the load on the combustion
engine. Furthermore, the Rexroth
Bosch Rexroth AG Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Mobile 2006 53

HRB concept requires only minor

modifications to the drive train, there- Braking

by making it possible to retrofit even

existing vehicle fleets with HRB.
Gear Controller / Coupling

3 Recovery of the brake Gas Gas

High pressure accumulator Low pressure accumulator
energy Pump/Motor

Recovery of the brake energy through

HRB is particularly interesting for Acceleration

vehicles which operate in intensive

cycles. Even in the area of commercial Gear Controller / Coupling
vehicles, manufacturers have been
working on hybrid drives for urban
Gas Gas
buses for a considerable time. In the High pressure accumulator Low pressure accumulator
Pump/Motor
1980s, bus manufacturers performed
tests which demonstrated the prom- Fig. 2: HRB method of function.
ising potential of hydrostatic brake
systems. Using this technology, Volvo
produced a bus with a hydraulic ac- 3.1 Work cycle of the hydrostatic
cumulator system which reduced fuel accumulator 2

consumption in the Stockholm city Figure 3 shows the principal behavior Area = Area
thermal losses
= Thermal Loss

cycle by 30 to 35 percent [2]. Also of volume and pressure of a hydraulic

Gas Pressure
volume

in the mid-80s, MAN and Rexroth accumulator during a complete dis- 3

retrofitted a bus with a hydrostatic charge / charge cycle.

Gas

1
power-split transmission which used
a regenerative brake system with high- 12: The accumulator is loaded and
4

pressure reservoir and axial piston increases the pressure of the

X

units to store nearly all kinetic energy. gas through volume reduction.
In addition to the improved accelera- This results in an increase in Gas Gas
volume
Volume

tion behavior, fuel savings of over 20 the temperature of the gas. Fig. 3: Charging/discharging process for the
percent were achieved during opera- hydraulic bladder accumulator.
23: Rest phase: the gas releases heat
tion [3], [4], [5]. to the surrounding environ-
ment; the pressure drops while
the volume remains constant.
34: Discharging the accumula-
tor: The accumulator pressure
drops as the volume increases.
As this occurs, the temperature
drops as well.
41: Rest phase: The gas pressure
increases as ambient heat is ab-
sorbed.
54 Mobile 2006 Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB)
Because the thermal losses during
the rest phase are greater than what
is gained during the charge process,
the area in Figure 3 is identical to the
thermal losses.
3.2 System variants for various
vehicle classes
Rexroth offers two basic concepts for
the HRB:
Add-on systems
For applications without hydrostatic
travel drive, for example garbage
trucks and commercial vehicles
used in intercity and distribution
traffic.
Integrated systems
For applications with an existing
hydrostatic travel drive, such as hy-
drostatic lift trucks.
For add-on systems, Rexroth primar-
ily uses variable axial piston pumps.
The coupling between the drive train
and the brake system can vary:
The braking torque is controlled by
adjusting the displacement of the axial
piston pump. An overview of the hy-
draulic system and the necessary sys-
tem components is shown in Figure 4.
During braking, a variable axial piston
pump (P/M), which is coupled with
the output drive, charges the high-
pressure reservoir (SHP). The high-
pressure reservoir drives the motor
(P/M) during acceleration. During the
intervening phases, the 2/2 directional
valve (V) is closed. In addition, a pres-
sure-relief valve (DBV) safeguards the
accumulator.
Bosch Rexroth AG
A pressure sensor is used to control 4 System components
the braking torque and operating state The system components required
transitions. for the HRB include components
which are serial or modified serial
components from the Rexroth line of
SHP
products. This guarantees high avail-
PH ability and reproducible series quality.
Through the variety of components,
Rexroth is able to offer system solu-
V DBV
tions which are customized for the
given application. This is illustrated
by a few examples:
K Lift truck
P/M
G 10 tons, 85 kW, uses HRB at speeds
up to 23 km/h
T
Garbage truck
Fig. 4: Schematic of add-on system.
25 tons, 200 kW, uses HRB at speeds
up to 25 km/h
VB1 4.1 Accumulators
Rexroth defines the optimal accu-
SLD
SHP
P M mulator size based on the amount
of energy which is to be stored. The
system design also takes into account
VB2
the efficiency of the hydraulic system
and energy losses through the rolling
Fig. 5: Schematic of integrated system. resistance of the tires. Thus, for the
two selected classes of vehicles, result
the following accumulator sizes:
Integrated systems use the existing
hydrostatic circuit in the given ap-
plication (Fig. 5). This applies to both Volume
multi-motor drives as well as hydro- Lift truck 20 Liter
mechanical power-split transmissions. Garbage truck 50 Liter
During normal travel, all four logic
valves are closed. Depending on the
mode, valves LC1,4 or LC2,3 open.
For acceleration, the high-pressure
reservoir is discharged to the low-
pressure reservoir via the hydraulic
motor. During braking, the motor
functions as a pump and charges the
high-pressure reservoir from the low-
pressure reservoir.
Bosch Rexroth AG
Fig. 6: Accumulator selection.
4.2 Axial piston unit
The selection of the axial piston unit
is based on the power (vehicle mass
m, speed v, acceleration a) which the
vehicle must achieve during brak-
ing. Typical values for acceleration lie
between 1.0 and 1.5 m/s2. The power
converted by the axial piston unit
from the flow Vg and pressure p is cal-
culated in an analogous manner. This
results in the following sizes for the
axial piston units:
Lift truck
Integrated system: no additional
hydraulic unit necessary
Garbage truck
250 ccm/U
Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB)
With this variant, the coupling of the
pump in the drive train is designed so
that when the vehicle is at the maxi-
mum speed Vmax up to which HRB is
used for braking, the pump operates
at its rated speed.
4.3 Valves and low-pressure
reservoirs
Which valves are necessary for both
system solutions is determined from
the maximum occurring pressure lev-
el and the flows which must pass over
the valves with the lowest possible
pressure losses. For a closed circuit,
the manufacturer can select either
a low-pressure bladder accumula-
tor or a pre-tensioned or ventilated
standard tank. The dimensioning of
a low-pressure bladder accumulator
is performed in a manner analogous
to that for determining the size of a
Mobile 2006 55
high-pressure reservoir. A tank, on
the other hand, must be able to ac-
cept at least the volume which results
from the change in volume of the gas
bladder of the high-pressure reservoir.
Thus, for the defined vehicle classes,
the resulting minimum takes sizes are:
Lift truck
6 liters
Garbage truck
15 liters
5 Vehicle selection and
simulation
Based on the method of function of
the HRB, the driving cycles and basic
requirements of the respective vehicle
applications are decisive for the po-
tential energy savings. Thus, HRB is
useful only if sufficient brake energy
is present in a typical work cycle of
the vehicle and energy recovery can be
economically implemented. To ensure
that this is the case, when selecting
economical and technologically use-
ful HRB applications, the following
parameters are to be analyzed and
evaluated:
Vehicle mass
Rolling and air resistance
Speed (speed at the start and end of
a braking operation)
Deceleration
Braking interval (frequency of the
braking operation)
56 Mobile 2006 Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Bosch Rexroth AG

In addition to the mass of the vehicle
itself, the surface on which the vehicle
is driven and the speed to which it is
accelerated, the operational cycle of
the vehicle also plays an important
roll in the size the fuel savings. A
garbage truck starts at one stopping
point, accelerates and brakes again
at the next stopping point. For a gar-
bage truck (weight 26 tons, power
205 KW, average fuel consumption
driving 10l/h) which accelerates to
25 km/h between collection points,
the fuel savings vary between 15 and
30 percent depending on the distance
between the collection points. The
influence of the travel path between
the loading and unloading of goods
is of great significance for a lift truck
as well.
5.1 Add-on system for garbage
trucks
The simulation of an HRB add-on
system for a garbage truck used for
household waste is based on the fol-
lowing cycle parameters (Fig. 7): The
typical deceleration/acceleration is ap-
prox. -0.65 / +1.4 m/s2, with a maxi-
mum speed of 25 km/h. The distances
between stops ranges between 30 and
100 m depending on the route.
acceleration (downsizing).
50 m
Fig. 7: Garbage truck cycle.
The simulation results show that
fuel savings of up to 30 percent
are achieved with the HRB system
(Fig. 8). The simulation also clearly
illustrates the faster accelerations
which are obtained when starting us-
ing the hybrid drive. Thus, the vehicle
with HRB reaches the next stopping
point faster. Alternatively, it would be
possible to use a smaller combustion
engine while maintaining the same

Thus, the use of a hydrostatic brake

system is of particular interest for the
following vehicles with intensive work
50
cycles: m
Way

30
Lift trucks 20 normal traction drive
10 reg. traction drive
Garbage trucks 0
0 3 6 9 12 15
Commercial vehicles used in re-
30
gional and distribution traffic
km/h
Velocity

The realistic simulation of vehicle

models shows that HRB can be used 10
higher acceleration
to achieve considerable reductions 0
0 3 6 9 12 15
in consumption in comparison to
conventional drives. For these simula- 0,1
Consumption

tions, Rexroth uses diesel engine mod- l

0,06
els with consumption characteristic 0,04
maps in the AMESim simulation tool. 0,02 Fuel saving: 30 %
0
Presented in the following are the re- 0 3 6 9 s 15
Time
sults from simulations using a garbage
truck (add-on system) and a lift truck
Fig. 8: Garbage truck simulation results.
(integrated system) as examples.
Bosch Rexroth AG Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Mobile 2006 57

5.2 Integrated system for lift

25

trucks Y-cycle km /h
Loading up 5 t load
The basis of the simulation was a ten- 5t
5t 15

ton lift truck with hydrostatic travel

Velocity [km/h]
10

Driving forward Reversing Driving forward

drive. For this purpose, the previously Reversing (empty)
(with load)
5

described integrated system was in- 5t

0

-5
stalled in the hydraulic circuit.
-10
0 10 20 30 40 s 60
Time

A typical loading cycle was specified

for the cycle (Fig. 9). During this
Fig. 9: Lift truck cycle (distance and speed profile).
cycle, the lift truck accelerates to the
maximum speed (23 km/h).
In Figure 10, the simulation results of
100
a normal drive are shown together normal traction drive
m
with those of a drive with integrated 60 reg. traction drive
Way

HRB. 40
20
The results show that fuel savings of 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
up to 25 percent are achieved by an
HRB integrated in the hydraulic cir- 30

cuit. km/h
Velocity

10
0

6 Lower operating costs -10

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
Decisive for the customer when using 0,1
Consumption

an HRB in a vehicle are the potential l

savings. Here, the additional purchase 0,06
costs must be amortized through sav- 0,04
0,02 Fuel saving: 25 %
ings in operating costs over the short- 0
est possible period. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 t 55
Time
In order to estimate the economic
Fig. 10: Lift truck simulation results.
attractiveness of the HRB concepts
presented here, the potential savings
which can be achieved during op-
6.1 Application example Driving cycle:
eration are examined on the basis of
driving profiles. Garbage truck Total duration: 510 s, of which 300 s
is work, 210 s is driving
Assumptions for the operating
cost analysis: Collection points: 9 stops
Motor power: 205 kW Speed in the work cycle: 25 km/h
Total weight: 26 tons Operating hours: 2,500 h/year, of
which 1,875 h/year are in city traffic
Average fuel consumption driv-
ing: 10 liter/h with a fuel price of Fuel savings through HRB for the
1.15 EUR/liter specified drive cycle: 25 percent
58 Mobile 2006 Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Bosch Rexroth AG

Operating cost reduction:

Annual fuel savings: 5,390 EUR
Additional costs savings of approxi-
mately 30 percent through reduced Garbage truck cost savings
brake wear
Annual savings [EUR]

6.2 Application example:

Lift trucks

Assumptions for the operating cost

analysis:
Motor power: 85 kW
Total weight: 10 tons (empty) / 15
tons (loaded)
Average fuel consumption: 5 Liter/h Diesel price [EUR]
with a fuel price of 1.15 EUR/liter
Fig. 11: Garbage truck cost savings.
Driving cycle:
Driving cycle according to Figure 9
Speed in the work cycle: 23 km/h
Operating hours: 2,000 h/year
Average fuel savings through HRB Lift truck cost savings
for the specified drive cycle: 25 per-
cent
Annual savings [EUR]

Operating cost reduction:

Annual cost savings: 2,875 EUR

7 Conclusion
The hydrostatic regenerative brake
system (HRB) is an economically
significant solution for the recovery
of brake energy and makes the savings
potentials of hybrid drives available
to commercial vehicles and mobile
working machines. Through the com-
bination of components which are
serial or modified serial components,
Rexroth is able to configure highly
reliable, customized system solutions
for specific vehicle types. The integra-
tion of HRB is achieved with only mi-
nor modifications to the drive train,
thereby opening the door to afford-
able retrofitting.
Diesel price [EUR]
Fig. 11: Fork lift truck cost savings.
The fuel savings achieved through the HRB drops fuel consumption by up to
use of an HRB must be compared to 35 percent. These savings are realized
the additional costs associated with constantly, the low additional costs for
adding such a system. Depending on adding the system must be paid only
the vehicle type, system and driving once.
cycle, these costs may be amortized
at various rates. For extremely short
work cycles, as are common with gar-
bage trucks and lift trucks, the use of
Bosch Rexroth AG Hydrostatic Regenerative Brake System (HRB) Mobile 2006 59

Advantages of the regenerative brake [4] Ch. Anderson, R. Paulsen, H.-P.

system at a glance:
Reduction in consumption of up to
35 percent through hydraulic recov-
ery of the brake energy
Equivalent emissions reduction
Reduction of brake wear and fine-
particulate dust through hydraulic
braking
Improved vehicle acceleration
through hydraulic boosting or pos-
sibilities for downsizing the com-
bustion engine
Simple system integration as well as
the possibility for vehicle retrofit-
ting
Low costs for system components
Willumeit: Entwicklung von Proto-
typfahrzeugen mit hydrostatischer
Bremsenergierckgewinnung (Devel-
opment of Prototype Vehicles with
Hydrostatic Braking Energy Recovery)
HYDROBUS, Ergebnisse der Fahr-
und Prfstandsversuche (HYDRO-
BUS, Results of Driving and Bench
Tests)
[5] P. Willumeit, B. Bennter: HY-
DRO-BUS A City Bus with Braking
Energy Recovery. Proc. XIX. Int. FISI-
TA Congress, Vol. 2, Paper No. 82065,
1982, Melbourne, Australia.

Literature
[1] John M. Miller, Miller J-N-J,
Design Services, Comparative Assess-
ment of Hybrid Vehicle Power Split
Transmission, 4th VI Winter Work-
shop Series, 2005.
[2] Regenerative Braking for Buses
Gives Big Fuel Saving, D. Scott, J.
Yamaguchi, pp. 95-99, Automotive
Engineering, vol. 92, No. 10, Oct.
1984.
[3] F. Korkmaz, H.-P. Willumeit, B.
Benneter, Th. Thier: Stadtlinienbus
mit hydrostatischer Bremsener-
gierckgewinnung (HYDROBUS);
(City Line Bus with Hydrostatic Re-
covery of Braking Energy). Hydraulik
und Pneumatik, 23 (1979). No. 7, pp.
520- 522, Kraussko pf-Verlag, Mainz.