The concept of the gas turbine-based hybrid vehicle: system, design and configuration issues

✍ Scribed by Roberto Capata; Enrico Sciubba

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 249 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0363-907X
• DOI: 10.1002/er.1178

✦ Synopsis

The object of this study is a theoretical and experimental analysis of a new hybrid propulsion system for a passenger sedan in which the thermal engine is a small gas turbine set. Some preliminary results on the possibility of replacing the conventional ICE of a hybrid 'series' configuration by a turbogas were presented and discussed in previous papers by the same authors: several possible designs were examined under both a thermodynamic and an operative point of view. This paper presents a summary of the project and constitutes an attempt to put things in a proper engineering perspective: the technical feasibility of the project is assessed via a calculation of the required mission loads, a preliminary design of the most important elements of the propulsive system, the choice of the mission control strategy and the implementation of a numerical system simulator. The experiments that provided a verification for the assumed component efficiencies were carried out, in cooperation with the Research Centre of ENEA-Casaccia, on an ELLIOTT TA-45 group. Our results, though only preliminary, allow for a direct comparison between a GT-hybrid vehicle and a modern diesel car, and indicate that the GT-hybrid may be actually a competitor for the FC-powered vehicle concept. Our 'optimal' configuration is a combination of a 100 kg battery pack and two turbogas set of 5 and 16 kW, respectively.