Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
The concept of vehicle as energy producer might have merit ie. reducing transmission losses.
The design and layout of that vehicle proposal looks naive as hell to me. High cg, worse r.r., really not the best Cd, and ergonomics? Forget it.
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The high cg is important to get the best possible Cd from an airship shape. Look up the USS Akron data if you want to see how good it can be.
The wheel trains (some say pontoons, skates etc.) have no wheel wells and eliminate all but the front wheels as main pressure drag points. The fairings over the wheels are not shown.
The high Cg is possible because of the articulated vehicle system, where the steering and stabilizing actions are combined. Look at the turning page for an idea about that.
As for the distributed energy producing system, yes it cuts distribution losses though these are not all that bad (about 7%). Far more important is that the throw away heat (50% to 70% loss) from central power plants is eliminated, because the car based system pipes its discharged heat into the house. The heat engine in the car would be adapted to run on natural gas from the house in a typical installation. If the house can not use the heat, then the whole thing falls back on the grid for charging batteries.
Eventually the use of heat could be expanded to even run absorption chiller type air conditioners and refrigerators, so even in hot climates the whole thing might work.
The reason this all ties together in a meaningful way is that the car only needs about 10 hp to run at 80 mph. A 16 hp engine gives some margin, but that still is about the right size to make the cogeneration system work, but not overwhelm the house with heat.
And as to r.r., some think adding wheels increases r.r. It does not since the weight on each goes down. The overall vehicle weight is what counts.
You did not mention that the whole thing looks like it could break apart in a wreck. It is not clear from the pictures but the attachment mechanism is based on the principle of the sailboat mast and stay system, which is a highly refined way to transfer huge forces. The objective with the car application is to do this with the least possible interference of the free flow aerodynamic system.
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