This paper offers a complete and verified model of DC trolleybus grids and examines the effect of the common modelling assumptions made in literature by using simulations, as well as bus and substation measurements from the grid of Arnhem, the Netherlands. An equivalent model for the overhead line impedance is offered taking into account the single line impedance, the supply and return lines, and the parallel connections between them. A case study shows that the feeder cables from the substations to the sections can be ignored, but only for certain substation power and feeder-line length ranges. On the other hand, the often-neglected regenerative braking, bus auxiliaries load, bilateral connections, and the exact nominal substation voltage are found to be crucial for the correct modelling of a trolleybus grid.

The city of Arnhem is known for its trolley busses, which operates in a network of over-head grid lines, leading to zero local emission. However, extending the driving range of the trolley busses beyond the over-head grid network is technically challenging and economically demanding due to the infrastructure requirements. This led to their participation in EUREGIO project e-Bus 2020 IMC. The aim of the project is to develop, design and optimize a hybrid driveline for trolley busses using an additional traction battery. Using the over-head grid network for In Motion Charging (IMC), eliminates the need for a separate charging infrastructure needed for regular electric busses. This paper presents a backward quasi-static modeling approach to estimate the battery capacity for the required range extension. The viability of the battery is verified using a scenario analysis.

Vehicle dynamics can be deeply affected by various tyre operating conditions, including thermodynamic and wear effects. Indeed, tyre temperature plays a fundamental role in high performance applications due to the dependencies of the cornering stiffness and potential grip in such conditions. This work is focused on the evaluation of a potentially improved control strategy’s performance when the control model is fed by instantaneously varying tyre parameters, taking into account the continuously evolving external surface temperature and the vehicle boundary conditions. To this end, a simplified tyre thermal model has been integrated into a model predictive control strategy in order to exploit the thermal dynamics’ dependents within a proposed advanced ABS control system. We evaluate its performance in terms of the resulting braking distance. In particular, a non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) based ABS controller with tyre thermal knowledge has been integrated. The chosen topic can possibly lay a foundation for future research into autonomous control where the detailing of decision-making of the controllers will reach the level of multi-physical phenomena concerning the tyre–road interaction.

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