JMU AFV Lab Blog

Saw this article on the Autobloggreen blog this morning and thought you may be interested. The 3 wheel “leaning” concept is not new; as the article mentions, Piaggio has had it for quite a while. What fascinates me is the concept of having electric motors/alternators in each front wheel, which charge their battery only from regenerative braking. It has a conventional, but supercharged125cc ICE driving the rear wheel.  Two separate drive systems.  I’m also fascinated by the horizontal spring arrangement of the front suspension.  I’m reserving judgment on this concept, mainly because I wonder what effect it will have on handling when the inside wheel drops in a pothole in a turn and the other wheel makes a sudden move upward, with attendant loss of traction when it is needed most.  I foresee skids in turns as a result.  Back in the late sixties early seventies, a British firm (BMC I think it was) sold a car with “hydraulic suspension.”  It had antifreeze/water filled rubber bags at each wheel, all connected with water lines.  This had a disturbing action that when one wheel dropped in a pothole, it was felt at all four wheels, like all four wheels had hit potholes simultaneously.  It also was prone to total loss of traction when something, like a pothole, disturbed the balance.  In a curve on a wet road , they would “turn end for end” if the driver was a little too aggressive.

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/04/peugeot-unleashes-118-mpg-hymotion3-compressor-concept/

Peugeot unleashes 118 mpg HYmotion3 Compressor Concept

Posted Oct 4th 2008 at 8:03PM by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Hybrid, MPG, Peugeot, On Two Wheels, Paris Motor Show

We really dig Peugeot’s new HYmotion3 Compressor Concept. It’s got three wheels — two up front and one in back, our preferred arrangement — and a hybrid drivetrain. The two front wheels are independently powered by individual wheel-mounted hub motors and have no connection to the supercharged four-stroke 125cc engine that powers the rear wheel. Regenerative braking is all that provides power to the scooter’s battery pack. Like the Piaggio MP3, the HYmotion3 is a leaning machine. Besides that radical powertrain, the scooter features a full safety cage that encompasses both the driver and passenger. A real windshield sits at the front with a second large sunroof overhead.

The engine shuts down when it’s not needed and the electrically-driven front wheels are capable of powering the machine by themselves. The HYmotion3 is extremely fuel efficient, recording 118 miles per gallon. Could it see production? It’s not beyond the realm of possibility, as the supercharged engine is already sold in other Peugeot scooters and the aforementioned MP3 has proven that the design can be a success on the sales floor. In other words, stay tuned.

Source: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/04/peugeot-unleashes-118-mpg-hymotion3-compressor-concept/

I saw this article in ScienceDaily and was fascinated by it. (For more on this idea, go to this article at greencarcongress.com.) It seems like such an “elegant” idea to generate electricity for a hybrid vehicle. Being the questioning person I am, I immediately wondered why they would use permanent magnets instead of an electromagnet in the core of the “alternator.” After all the alternator in modern motor vehicles uses a small wire wound electromagnet as the “rotor” and a relatively larger coil as the “stator” to produce electricity to recharge the battery and provide power for electricity needs of the vehicle. These alternators use slip rings with carbon “brushes” to transmit voltage to the rotor to energize it. In this “Linear Alternator,” instead of rings, linear strips of metal on the connecting rod with brushes attached to the case could energize the coil.  Of course proper orientation of the moving coils and their magnetic lines of flux relative to the orientation of the stationary, current producing, coils would have to be taken into consideration.  My opinion is that the engine would have to be “fatter” in the alternator section to be more effective as an alternator.  What do you think?  (I can see this as a future project for the AFV Lab.)

free-piston-linear-alternator

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2008) — In an advance toward introduction of an amazing new kind of internal combustion engine, researchers in China are reporting development and use of a new and more accurate computer model to assess performance of the so-called free-piston linear alternator (FPLA).

Their study of the FPLA, which could provide a low-emission, fuel efficient engine for future hybrid electric vehicles, is scheduled for the Sept. 17 issue of ACS’ Energy & Fuels, a bi-monthly journal.

Qingfeng Li and colleagues point out that the FPLA has only one moving part and is an engine designed to generate electricity. In the device, a piston in a cylinder shuttles between two combustion chambers. Permanent magnets on the piston generate electricity by passing through the coils of an alternator centered on the cylinder. The engine can burn a variety of fuels, including natural gas and hydrogen, and seems ideal use in a future world of climate change and possible fossil fuel shortages, they suggest.

Their report describes development of a better computer model to evaluate performance of the FPLA and guide engineers in construction of the engine. Results of their initial simulations showed that the FPLA could accelerate three times faster than other internal combustion engines and burns fuel in ways that minimize air pollution. “It is an environmentally friendly power source for the future,” the report concludes.

Journal reference:

1. Li, Qingfeng, Xiao, Jin, and Huang, Zhen. Simulation of a Two-Stroke Free-Piston Engine for Electrical Power Generation. Energy Fuels, 2008; DOI: 10.1021/ef800217k

Also see: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/09/modeling-a-free.html