|
Old Mechanic,
As a newcomer to this site, but a long-term believer that non-electric hybrids are still a missed opportunity, I whole-heartedly commend your efforts here!
Your 'leap of imagination' to using the rotating cylinder bodies for their flywheel effect is a work of genius, in my opinion.
Of course, the added inertial resistance of this load does make the reliance on a accumulator for launch-assist indispensable - without the need of over-engineering the hub motors instead.
Taking the idea of a flywheel a step further (& halving the motor count) would it not be worth considering using only one transversely centred motor (with diff) flat on the floor of the engine compartment? Combine this with a pump to fill or empty the outer ring of the motor with hydraulic fluid & you have a variable flywheel device. The regenerative braking should still be able to work in reverse through short transmission step.
I, myself, have spent some time considering several configurations of a air-store hybrid using a four-stroke free piston (no crank) engine - i.e. two piston in phase work direct on a reciprocating hydraulic pump piston; low-press returns IC pistons to TDC (ideally through exhaust pressure scavenging via a hydrostatic system I have planned).
A accumulator would 'rectify' the pump flow and give an acceleration boost when needed.
The biggest hurdle has been the incompatibility with braking regeneration (regen, I feel has to be an incorporated feature in any hybrid design), when using free-piston engines.
Your solution is so much more elegant in combining these components.
Please keep us informed, especially on where the experiments at Virginia Tech. go.
I take my hat off to you, sir!
Tom (UK)
|