Economical launching and accelerating control strategy for a single-shaft parallel hybrid electric bus

This paper presents an economical launching and accelerating mode, including four ordered phases: pure electrical driving, clutch engagement and engine start-up, engine active charging, and engine driving, which can be fit for the alternating conditions and improve the fuel economy of hybrid electric bus (HEB) during typical city-bus driving scenarios. By utilizing the fast response feature of electric motor (EM), an adaptive controller for EM is designed to realize the power demand during the pure electrical driving mode, the engine starting mode and the engine active charging mode. Concurrently, the smoothness issue induced by the sequential mode transitions is solved with a coordinated control logic for engine, EM and clutch. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed launching and accelerating mode and its control methods are effective in improving the fuel economy and ensure the drivability during the fast transition between the operation modes of HEB. •An economical launching and accelerating mode for parallel hybrid electric bus is introduced.•Coupling driving control scheme for the economical mode is proposed.•Adaptive controller is designed for Electric motor.•Coordinated control method between engine and clutch is presented.•Experiment is performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.