Regenerative Braking with Duty Cycle Settings for

Brushless DC Motor
Ignatius Wisnu Adi Nugroho Slamet Riyadi
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Soegijapranata Catholic University Soegijapranata Catholic University
Semarang, Indonesia Semarang, Indonesia
ignatiuswisnuadinugroho@gmail.com sriyadi7167@gmail.com

Abstract—Brushless DC (BLDC) motor are widely used in motor with large winding inductance and low winding resis-
many applications such as electric vehicle, house appliances, tance help regeneration. Regenerative braking vastly reduces
etc. A proper control for such motor is required to achieve the dependency on fuel, increases current to charging battery,
better performance. For electric vehicle applications, regenerative
braking is needed to make such vehicle can travel longer distance. and reduces emission. This system works more efficiently in
This paper presents a control strategy for regenerative braking urban areas with stop and go driving conditions [1].
with variable duty cycle, by setting the duty cycle the output The use of BLDC motor on an electric vehicle requires a
voltage of the converter can be increase more than the battery proper control. This paper propose regenerative braking method
voltage under different speed of the motor. This concept can save with use duty cycle settings of the converter, to acting output
more electric energy. To verify the analysis, experimental works
were done. These showed that different duty cycle gave different voltage on BLDC motor as a generator that can raised more
current level flowing to the battery. than battery voltage with wide range speed. This system is
Index Terms—BLDC, braking, regenerative, hall-effect, duty an open loop so that an additional parameter is needed to
cycle, switching adjust current entering battery to extend battery life. From the
laboratory test result shows the higher voltage boosting make
I. I NTRODUCTION
more current enters the battery. It means more energy enters
In recent years green energy has become the need for the battery.
environmental protection. The electric vehicles which produce
zero emission to atmosphere helps in reducing air pollution II. D ESIGN AND O PERATION
caused by the transportation system. The problem for an electric A. Brushless DC Motor Control
vehicle is with driving range [1]. Electric vehicle cannot achieve
BLDC motor commutation is achieved by control of con-
longer distance if loses their energy. Braking is one problem
duction on the inverter bridge arm. The basic of an equivalent
of loses energy and make the vehicle not efficient.
circuit of a BLDC motor with a drive system in the form of
Brushless DC motor (BLDC) is very impressive applicated in
a three-phase H-bridge inverter shown in Fig. 1 [4]. A BLDC
electric vehicles because of its high power density, good speed-
motor uses a dc power supply which is required to provide
torque characteristics, high efficiency, wide speed ranges, and
energy.
low maintenance. BLDC motor is a type of synchronous motor.
It means the magnetic field generated by the rotor rotation
at the same frequency. BLDC motors do not experience the
slip in which is normally seen in induction motors. However,
a BLDC motor requires relatively complex electronics for
control. Although BLDC is having complex control but with
the help of power electronics, it has become easier. It has many
advantages over induction motor and brushed dc motors such as
good efficiency and dynamic response, simple structure, greater
speed range, robust structure, higher starting torque and noise-
free operation [1] [2].
Thus, regenerative braking helps in recovering energy from Fig. 1. Equivalent circuit of BLDC motor including the inverter circuit
the wheels which got wasted in a traditional braking system.
The regenerative braking improves the driving range by 16.25% In Fig. 1 R and L represent resistance and reactance of the
[3]. When the motor speed reaches above-rated speed especially armature of the BLDC motor. On the right side ea, eb, ec,
traveling downhill, the large amount of backfill is produced represent Back-EMF (BEMF) armature while La, Lb, Lc are
in the motor windings. During this regenerative braking the the current armature BLDC motor in phase a, b, c. S1-S6 is an
converter will, recover maximum energy from the motor. The inverter ignition component and D1-D6 is a freewheeling diode.
In one base the inverter is not allowed to turn on simultaneously. C. Regenerative Control
Component C is a DC-link capacitor that is used as a temporary
One simple and efficient method is to independently switch
storage medium [2]. Regenerative braking can be achieved by
the conjunction with PWM to implement effective braking
the reversal of current in the battery during deceleration, taking
control. However, with the low RPM of the BLDC motor, the
advantage of the motor acting as a generator, redirecting the
winding BEMF cannot reach the voltage across the battery.
current flow into the supply battery. The same power circuit in
Moreover, the recovery of energy also cannot be achieved.
Fig. 1 can be used with an appropriate switching strategy [5]
Due to the presence of inductances in the motor can constitute
[6] [7].
the boost circuit. In order to get the recovery of energy, we
B. Motoring Control have to boost the voltage on the dc bus through the inductor
accumulator. We turn off all MOSFET on the low arms of
When the BLDC motor functionate in the acceleration mode,
three-phase inverter. Fig. 3 shows the phase relation among
the top-part switches (high-side, S1 S3 S5) as shown in Fig.
the BEMF, the armature current of the BLDC motor, and the
1 are operated in the pulse-width modulation (PWM) mode
switching signals for the bidirectional converter, in which there
with the order determined based on the hall-effect condition
is only one power switch operated within each communication
described in Table I, whereas the bottom part switches (low-
state. By controlling MOSFET, the whole circuit constitutes a
side, S2 S4 S6) are continuously ON.
boost circuit [2] [4].

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit acceleration mode (STATE III)

Due to rotor induction, in Fig. 2 eab appears as the motor

BEMF. The effective current in the motor winding can be
controlled through the duty cycle of the odd-numbered switches
[4]. Fig. 3. Single switch regenerative braking

TABLE I The relationship between the current flowing into the battery
C OMMUTATION T IMING IN ACCELELERATION M ODE and the armature current can be given in equation 1.
HALL-
STATE EFFECT S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6
(a,b,c)
ia (1 − D) = ib (1)
I 001 0 0 1 0 0 1
II 101 1 0 0 0 0 1 If Vo = Rb.ib, then the armature current can be given in
III 100 1 0 0 1 0 0 equation 2.
IV 110 0 0 0 1 1 0
V 010 0 1 0 0 1 0
VI 011 0 1 1 0 0 0 VS
ia = (2)
Rb (1 − D)2 + 2R
The current flow direction during the State III of the accel- The average value of the inductor voltage during one period
eration mode is shown in Fig. 2. In this state, if S1 and S4 is zero, the current flow in the armature can be given in equation
conducting, the current Ion is flowing from the node a to b to 3.
charge the inductor. When S1 is off, the inductor will discharge
so that the current Iof f flowing from S4 to D2 forming a closed VS − VO (1 − D)
circuit. ia = (3)
2R
 Fig. 6. Schematic of the proposed duty cycle settings method

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit boost chopper ON-OFF mode The proposed method is concern about the battery charging
system while braking. In Fig. 6 shows the schematic system
The regenerative braking mode is operated to obtain the of the proposed duty cycle settings method. Switching pattern
deceleration of the BLDC motor. It is obtained by operating the are made by using a reference from the hall-effect when the
even-numbered switches with the sequence determined using BLDC motor is operating. The dsPIC30F4012 microcontroller
the hall-effect conditions [4]. with input capture facility will convert the hall-effect from
In Fig. 4 explained, the current is flowing from the node b digital input to an integer value. After receiving the hall-
to a. In this state, Ion will charge the inductor. When S2 is effect signal, the microcontroller inject PWM signals based on
off, the inductor will discharge so that Iof f flows through the the proper duty cycle settings. Afterward, when braking, the
freewheeling diode towards the battery for energy regeneration; microcontroller will connect the switching signal to the driver
a similar principle to the operation of a boost-converter circuit. only when each phase BEMF on the peak voltage, then the
The form of switching signal, voltage and current curves under converter processed to charge the battery. The flow chart of the
the regenerative braking mode is given in Fig. 5. proposed duty cycle settings method can be seen in Fig. 7.
To determine when exactly the ON and OFF switch when
braking accordingly use equation 4 and equation 5.

ton × HallEf f ect

Onstate = (4)
360

tof f × HallEf f ect

Of fstate = (5)
360

Fig. 5. The form of switching signal, voltage and current curves under the
regenerative braking mode

D. The Proposed Duty Cycle Settings Method

In the regenerative braking, requires a duty cycle operation
to adjust the amount of voltage to be boosted. Hall-effect which
already embedded inside BLDC motor is used to switch during
braking to charge the battery as reference. Fig. 7. Flow chart proposed of system
 MOSFET driver as seen in Fig. 6. Specification of BLDC motor
which used in this paper can be seen in Table II.

TABLE II
M OTOR S PECIFICATION

Model FXD57BL115S18-240TF-001A Unit

Number of Poles 4 -
Number of Phases 3 -
Rated Voltage 24 VDC
Rated Speed 4000 RPM
Rated Current 11 A
Body Length 114 mm
Mass 800 g

Fig. 9. The prototype of experimental work

Fig. 8. The process of switching with hall-effect detection

Using the input capture facility on dsPIC30F4012 with

references from the hall-effect on each phase can help the
switching process on regenerative braking. Alteration of the
switching process can be presented on switch S1, S3, S5 on a
three-phase inverter. The ean phase is shown on switch S1, the
ebn phase is shown on switch S3, and the ecn phase on switch
S5. The duration of ON OFF on switch S1 is at 30o − 150o ,
on the S3 switch at 150o − 270o , and on the S5 switch occurs
at 270o − 30o . The relationship between BEMF phase A, phase
B, phase C and hall-effect and switching duration can be seen
in Fig. 8. The prototype for experimental works can be seen in
Fig. 9.
Fig. 10. BEMF of phase A, phase B, phase C without switching process
III. R ESULT AND D ISCUSSION
The models of capturing the hall-effect signal on the BLDC In Fig. 10. shows the condition of each phase without
motor by the dsPIC30F4012 microcontroller with input capture switching process on 1600-RPM and when the voltage has not
facilities which results in braking switches S1, S3, and S5 been boosted. While in Fig. 11, Fig. 12, and Fig. 13 shows
working at the peak of each phase BEMF voltage shown in the condition when the duty cycle starts operate, BEMF phase
Fig. 8. A, phase B, and phase C run into switching at the peak of
In Fig. 9 can be explained, this prototype is using three-phase each voltage. In Fig. 11 shows, the voltage boosting from the
eight pole rotor BLDC Motor (12/8 BLDCM), three-phase previous voltage 11Vdc in Fig. 10 to 23Vdc and rotor rotation
inverter consisting of six active switches, dsPIC30F4012 mi- decrease to 1380-RPM under duty cycle 0.20, in Fig. 12 under
crocontroller, capacitor 480V/220uF, Battery 12V, three piece the duty cycle 0.40 the voltage boosting to 40 Vdc and rotor
toggle button, three piece LEM HX-S10P SP2 current sensor, rotation decrease to 1100-RPM, also in Fig. 13 under the duty
cycle 0.60, the voltage boosting to 44 Vdc and the rotor rotation the capacitor rising up and also followed by the current entering
decrease to 895-RPM. the battery go up, this indicates that the regenerative braking
The results of the experimental works in Fig. 10 show that system works well.
the output signal from BEMF in each phase is sinusoidal and
not trapezoidal. This is because the construction winding of
each type of motor is different. Moreover, in this experiment
BLDC motor is only used as a generator to boosting voltage,
so there is no need to modify the output signal from BEMF
to produce optimal torque. If the BLDC motor functions as a
driving motor, it is necessary to modify BEMF signal and use
a Zero Crossing Detector to get the optimal torque at a certain
angle.

Fig. 14. Current waves before capacitor (A) and after capacitor (B) under duty
cycle 0.20

Fig. 11. BEMF phase A, phase B, phase C under duty cycle 0.20

Fig. 15. Current waves before and after capacitor under duty cycle 0.40

Fig. 12. BEMF phase A, phase B, phase C under duty cycle 0.40

Fig. 16. Current waves before and after capacitor under duty cycle 0.60

IV. C ONCLUSION
Based on the result, this method can increase the voltage
and current that flowing into the battery. The higher duty cycle
period makes battery charging faster and reinforces the braking
effect of the motor. Moreover, with this method create the
regenerative braking system on the BLDC motor more concise,
the hall-effect on the motor is used as a reference source.
Fig. 13. BEMF phase A, phase B, phase C under duty cycle 0.60 Processing the hall-effect output signal using the dsPIC30F4012
microcontroller has been used and described in this paper
In Fig. 14, Fig. 15, Fig. 16, shows the current waves in before before. The result of current and voltage boosting that enters
capacitor and after capacitor under duty cycle settings. While the battery can also be seen in the result image described in
braking, the higher duty cycle operate, the current that entering this paper.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by Directorate of Research and
Community Service, Directorate General of Research Strength-
ening and Development, The Ministry of Research, Technology
and Higher Education, Republic of Indonesia under the scheme
of PTUPT 2019.
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