Analysis of Hybrid Heavy Duty Powertrains for Commercial Vehicles in the Face of Advanced Vehicle and Exhaust Energy Recovery Technologies

New regulations, rising fuel costs and environmental concerns are driving significant improvement in heavy duty truck aerodynamics and rolling resistance that fundamentally change the power needs of heavy duty trucks. Furthermore, exhaust energy recovery technology is evolving and driving a change in the power management strategies. Together with advances in hybrid technology, these changes open the potential for a cost-effective line haul hybrid line of trucks.

This paper will present a simulation study that was performed in order to evaluate the potential fuel economy benefits of a heavy duty powertrain for commercial vehicles. The architecture includes hybrid electric components paired with a waste heat recovery system. The electric energy can be used to reduce engine load during peak power requests. The sources for the electric energy are both braking energy regeneration as well as conversion of waste heat to electricity via a high speed generator. We carry out a preliminary analysis to study the effect of aerodynamic drag reduction on the increase in available regeneration energy. Typical heavy duty truck duty cycles are used for the analysis.