Development of Duty Cycle for Transmission System Components in a Two-Wheeled Electric Vehicle

A two-wheeler is exposed to various dynamic loads transferred from roads and input given by the vehicle prime mover, which leads to the occurrence of torque on the wheel and transmission. The torque generated depends on the terrain and riding pattern of users, so it becomes important to develop a duty cycle of transmission considering multiple events enabling us to understand the durability standard of the component designed. The tests performed were on an EV two-wheeler that uses a belt drive transmission. The paper will focus on the following aspects, which cover the customization of the torque cell for the pulley system in the transmission, followed by the testing on different selected terrain conditions and analysis methodology for generating the duty cycle for different systems in transmission of the vehicle. A customized torque cell using strain gauges was developed with locations identified from finite element analysis performed on the wheel pulley. Strain gauge locations are selected such that no other load cross talks are occurring, throughout the rotation maintaining a similar strain-to-torque ratio. A telemetry system will be incorporated, to perform the testing in the rotating component. The tests planned during this process would be replicated to a user driveability pattern and high torque-generating conditions. Multiple trials and events would be covered helping the development of the transmission duty cycle. The wheel pulley torque data collection will also be crucial in generating torque duty cycle for the linked components and belts in the transmission assembly. A certain percentage of the cycle count would be increased while performing the calculation to accommodate the factor of the safety aspect. The duty cycle development of transmission will eventually help in improving the robustness of the two-wheeler electric vehicle under real-world driving conditions and provide better knowledge towards achieving an optimized structure.