1. Development of a Linear Alternator--Engine for Hybrid Electric Vehicle Applications
- Author
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Cawthorne, William R., Famouri, Parviz, Chen, Jingdong, Clark, Nigel N., McDaniel, Thomas I., Atkinson, Richard J., Nandkumar, Subhash, Atkinson, Christopher M., and Petreanu, Sorin
- Subjects
Electric vehicles -- Design and construction ,Electric generators -- Alternating current ,Internal combustion engines -- Research ,Business ,Electronics ,Electronics and electrical industries ,Transportation industry - Abstract
This paper examines the design and operation of a generation system that utilizes a linear crankless internal combustion engine in conjunction with a linear alternator. This system directly utilizes the linear motion of the piston to drive the alternator rather than first converting to rotary motion. The result is a more compact, reliable, and efficient unit as the system has only one moving part, making the system ideal for use in series hybrid electric vehicles. This paper describes the overall system design as well as the subsystems including the engine and alternator. A dynamic simulation is then presented which utilizes the model developed to determine the output characteristics of the system. The prototype system was successfully tested, and experiment results are also included. Index Terms -- Auxiliary power unit (APU), hybrid electric vehicles, linear alternator, linear engine.
- Published
- 1999