Research Motivation

The electrification of transportation presents one of the most pressing challenges in the decarbonization to a net zero emissions economy. Relative to their internal combustion vehicle (ICV) counterparts, electric vehicles (EVs) be they trains or cars, have a greater “well-to-wheel” energy efficiency. They also have the added benefit of not emitting any carbon dioxide in operation and rather shift their emissions to existing local fleet of power generation technology.

Nevertheless, the successful adoption of multi-modal, connected, automated, shared, and electrified transportation systems requires multi-infrastructure coordination.  From a transportation perspective, electric cars may have only a short range but require many hours to charge. From an electricity perspective, the charging loads can draw excessive power demands which may exceed transformer ratings, cause undesirable line congestion or voltage deviations. These loads may be further exacerbated temporally by similar charging patterns driven by similar work and travel lifestyles or geographically by the relative sparsity of charging infrastructure in high demand areas. In effect, the electrification of transportation creates a system-of-infrastructure systems nexus. 

We have made contributions in three areas:

For further details, please explore the LIINES Publication Repository. 

Thought Leadership

A Benchmark Analysis of Open-Source Transportation‐Electrification Simulation Tools (2015):  Led by Deema Allan, this critical review assesses the strengths and weaknesses of open-source electrified-transportation system simulation tools.

A Hybrid Dynamic System Model for Multi-Modal Transportation Electrification (2016): Leveraging our expertise in hetero-functional graph theory, this work presents the first model to integrate transportation system dynamics, charging limitations, and the electric power grid.

An Axiomatic Design Approach to Passenger Itinerary Enumeration in Reconfigurable Transportation Systems (2014): This is amongst the first works to apply hetero-functional graph theory to transportation systems; laying the foundation for our electrified transportation research.

Design & Analysis Methods

A Hybrid Dynamic System Assessment Methodology for Multi-Modal Transportation Electrification (2017): Leveraging our model of the same name, this work presents the first assessment methodology to integrate transportation system dynamics, charging limitations, and the electric power grid.

A Hybrid Dynamic System Model for Multi-Modal Transportation Electrification (2016): Leveraging our expertise in hetero-functional graph theory, this work presents the first model to integrate transportation system dynamics, charging limitations, and the electric power grid.

An Axiomatic Design Approach to Passenger Itinerary Enumeration in Reconfigurable Transportation Systems (2014): This is amongst the first works to apply hetero-functional graph theory to transportation systems; laying the foundation for our electrified transportation research.

Case Studies

Electrified Transportation System Performance: Conventional vs. Online Electric Vehicles (2016): Building upon our newly developed transportation electricity nexus simulator, this work presents a rigorous techno-economic comparison of the the performance of online and plugin electric vehicles. The studies specifically weighs the investment and operating cost trade-offs.

Abu Dhabi Electric Vehicle Integration Study (2016): In the first full scale study of its kind, the LIINES has studied the technical feasibility of electric vehicles into the city of Abu Dhabi with respect to three infrastructure systems: the road transportation system, the electrical grid, and the Abu Dhabi Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation System.

Further case studies can be found in the smart power grid, hydrogen-energy-water nexus, and smart cities, regions, and nations research themes.