Optimal EV Charging Networks and EV Fleet Size

Overview

This project aims to solve the problem of urban freight vehicles in reducing their carbon footprints while meeting the pick-up and delivery demands. Since the carbon footprint originates from different stages of a vehicle’s life, Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is incorporated into the project to have a comprehensive understanding of the impacts. LCA is a tool used to assess the impact a product has on its environment in its lifetime, starting from production to disposal. LCA of the freight vehicles is conducted by including the emissions in the manufacturing of the vehicle and operational emissions (upstream). The operational emission is modelled by modelling the energy requirements from GPS data collected from trucks doing pick-up and delivery using Vehicle Specific Power (VSP) and kinematic equations.

Objectives

1. Conduct Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): Estimate embodied emissions for light and medium-duty trucks, including upstream electricity generation emissions.

2. Analyze Real-World Freight Operations: Use GPS-based truck data to study trip patterns, dwell times, and charging/discharging efficiencies.

3. Develop Energy and Emission Models: Create models to estimate instantaneous energy consumption, operational emissions, and SOC variation with time and distance.

4. Optimize EV Fleet and Charging Infrastructure: Determine optimal battery sizes, fleet compositions, and charger types/locations to minimize total emissions.

5. Formulate a Heuristic Optimization Algorithm: Develop algorithms integrating LCA results to optimize routing and infrastructure planning for electric freight fleets.

Researcher

Rokom Perme (Ph.D)

Optimal EV Charging Networks and EV Fleet Size

Overview

Objectives

Faculty

Dr.Gitakrishnan Ramadurai