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Pneumatic hybrid – an alternative to electric hybrid?

Bengt Johansson and Sasa Trajkovic

Division of Combustion Engines, Lund University, Faculty of Engineering

ABSTRACT

Urban traffic involves frequent acceleration and deceleration. During deceleration, the energy previouslyused to accelerate the vehicle is mainly wasted on heat generated by the friction brakes. If this energy that iswasted in traditional IC engines could be saved, the fuel economy would improve. Today there are severalsolutions to meet the demand for better fuel economy and one of them is the pneumatic hybrids. The ideawith pneumatic hybridization is to reduce the fuel consumption by taking advantage of the, otherwise lost,brake energy.During pneumatic hybrid operation the engine can be used as a 2-stroke compressor for generation of compressed air during vehicle deceleration (compressor mode) and during vehicle acceleration the enginecan be operated as an air-motor driven by the previously stored pressurized air (air-motor mode). Thecompressed air is stored in a pressure tank connected to one of the inlet ports. One of the engine inlet valveshas been modified to work as a tank valve in order to control the pressurized air flow to and from thepressure tank.In order to switch between different modes of engine operation there is a need for a fully variable valveactuation (FVVA) system. The engine used in this study is equipped with pneumatic valve actuators that usecompressed air in order to drive the valves and the motion of the valves are controlled by a combination of electronics and hydraulics.

Key-words:

Air, Hybrid, Pneumatic, Compressor, VVT

INTRODUCTION

As the pollution standards are becoming morestringent going towards zero emissions together with increasing fuel prices, engine developers arelooking for alternative engine management tomeet the increasing demand for better fueleconomy. Of great importance is to improve thefuel economy at part-load, especially during citydriving since it involves frequent acceleration anddeceleration. In conventional vehicles all thekinetic energy built up during acceleration is lostduring declaration in the form of heat generatedby the friction brakes. This leads to a higher fuelconsumption during city driving compared withfreeway driving where acceleration anddeceleration is less frequent. Today there areseveral solutions to meet the demand for better fuel economy and one of them is vehiclehybridization.Vehicle hybridization can be done in variousways. The maybe best known example of vehiclehybridization is the electric hybrid. However other hybrids like fuel cell hybrids and pneumatichybrids are being investigated. The main idea withelectric hybridization is to reduce the fuelconsumption by taking advantage of the otherwiselost brake energy. Hybrid operation also allowsthe combustion engine to operate at its mostoptimal operating point in terms of load andspeed. The main disadvantage with electrichybrids is that they require an extra propulsionsystem and large heavy batteries with a limitedlife-cycle. This introduces extra manufacturingcosts which are compensated by a higher end-product price comparable to the price of high endvehicles. One way of keeping the extra cost aslow as possible and thereby increase customer attractiveness, is the introduction of the pneumatichybrid. It does not require an expensive extrapropulsion source and it works in a way similar tothe electric hybrid. (Tai et al., 2003) describessimulations of a pneumatic hybrid with a so called“round-trip” efficiency of 36% and an improvementof 64% on fuel economy in city driving.Simulations made by (Andersson et al., 2005)show a regenerative efficiency as high as 55% for a dual pressure tank system for heavy dutyvehicles.

PNEUMATIC HYBRID

Pneumatic hybrid operation introduces newoperating modes in addition to conventional ICE(Internal Combustion Engine) operation. Duringdeceleration of the vehicle, the engine is used asa compressor that converts the kinetic energy of the vehicle into potential energy in the form of compressed air which is stored in a pressure tank.This kind of operation is referred to as the

compressor mode

(CM). After a standstill, theengine is used as an air-motor that utilizes thepressurized air from the tank in order toaccelerate the vehicle. This type of engineoperation is known as the

air-motor mode

(AM). Athird possible mode of operation is the air-power assist mode (APAM). During APAM the storedcompressed air is used for supercharging theengine when there is a demand f or higher torque,for instance during the turbo-lag

period. Duringperiods when no energy is required from theengine, like idling and when the gas pedal isreleased, the ICE can be completely shut off. Thismeans that during such periods there will be nofuel consumption and thus no exhaust emissions.MODES OF OPERATIONIn

compressor mode

, the engine is used as a 2-stroke compressor in order to decelerate thevehicle. The kinetic energy of the moving vehicleis converted to potential energy in the form of compressed air. The operating cycle of CM canbe explained with references toFigure 1andFigure 2. The numbers in brackets refer to thenumbers in the PV-diagram.

Intake stroke

. During CM the inlet valveopens a number of CAD after TDC andbrings fresh air to the cylinder (1). At theend of the intake stroke, as the pistonreaches BDC, the inlet valve closes (2).

II.

Compression stroke

. The moving pistonstarts to compress the air trapped in thecylinder after BDC and the tank valve (thevalve which controls the flow of air between the cylinder and the pressuretank) opens somewhere between BDCand TDC (3), depending on how muchbraking torque is needed. For instance avery early IVO means that there will be ablowdown of pressurized air into thecylinder, and the piston has to workagainst a much higher pressure, thus a

Turbo-lag is the time it takes for the turbine toreach necessary speed from the moment thedriver has pressed the gas pedal.higher braking torque is achieved. Thepressure tank is charged withcompressed air as long as the tank valveis open. The tank valve closes shortlyafter TDC (4). At this point the cylinder isfilled with compressed air at the samepressure level as the air in the pressuretank. As the piston moves towards BDC,the compressed air expands and theintake valve opens (1) when ambientpressure is reached in the cylinder.

Figure 1 Illustration of CM. I) Intake of freshair, II) Compression of air and pressure tankcharging.Figure 2 Illustration of the ideal PV-diagram ofone CM cycle.

air-motor mode

, the engine is used as a 2-stroke air-motor that uses the compressed air from the pressure tank in order to accelerate thevehicle. The potential energy in the form of compressed air is converted to mechanical energyon the crankshaft which in the end is converted tokinetic energy. The operating cycle of CM can beexplained with references toFigure 3andFigure 4. The numbers in brackets refer to the numbersin the PV-diagram. Observe that the ideal PV-

diagram for AM is the same as for CM, justreversed.

Power stroke

. During AM the tank valveopens at TDC or shortly after (1) and thecompressed air fills the cylinder to givethe torque needed in order to acceleratethe vehicle. Somewhere between TDCand BDC the tank valve closes (2),depending on how much torque the driver demands. Increasing the tank valveduration will increase the torquegenerated by the compressed air.

II.

Exhaust/compression stroke

. The inletvalve opens around BDC (3) in order toavoid compression of air as the pistontravels towards TDC. Closing of the inletvalve occurs somewhere between BDCand TDC (4), and is chosen in such a waythat when the piston reaches TDC, the air trapped in the cylinder is compressed tothe same level as the tank pressure level.If the inlet valve closes too late, thepressure in the cylinder at TDC will bebelow the tank pressure level, and assoon as the tank valve opens a blowdownof compressed air into the cylinder willoccur. A rush of compressed air into thecylinder means that the pressure dropover the valve would increase which leadsto a decrease in AM efficiency.

Figure 3 Illustration of AM. I) Intake ofompressed air, II) Air venting.c

Figure 4 Illustration of the ideal PV-diagram ofone AM cycle.ELECTRO PNEUMATIC VALVE ACTUATION

In order to be able to switch between allpneumatic hybrid operations and conventionalICE operations, a variable valve actuating systemis needed. In this study a pneumatic variablevalve actuating system has been used. The valvesystem is designed and manufactured by aSwedish company named Cargine EngineeringAB. The system uses compressed air in order todrive the valves and the motion of the valves arecontrolled by a combination of electronics andhydraulics. The system is a fully variable valveactuating system, which means that the valve lift,valve timing and valve lift duration can becompletely controlled, independently of eachother. The pneumatic valve system in questionand the control program has been morethoroughly described by (Trajkovic et al., 2006).

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

The engine used in this study is a single-cylinder Scania D12 diesel engine together with thepneumatic variable valve actuating systemdescribed earlier in this paper. The geometricproperties of the engine can be seen inTable 1.The engine has two separated inlet ports andtherefore they are suitable to use with thepneumatic hybrid since there will be nointerference between the intake air and thecompressed air. One of the inlet valves wastherefore converted to a

tank valve

.The exhaust valves were deactivated throughoutthe whole study because no fuel was injected andthus there was no need for exhaust gas venting.The pressure tank used in this study is an AGA 50litre pressure tank suitable for pressures up to 200bars. The tank size in the current system is

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Air Hybrid – an Alternative to Electric Hybrid

A paper about the investigation of air hybrid powertrain capable of reducing the fuel consumption of a ICE motored vehicle. Visit my homepage: www.mesaconsult.com

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Category:	School Work
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Upload Date:	02/12/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	pressure engine hybrid air combustion pneumatic vvt hcci cargine air hybrid (more tags) pressure engine hybrid air combustion pneumatic vvt hcci cargine air hybrid pneuamtic hybrid pneuamtic valves published research (fewer)