Design of a Rotary Engine based High-Power Density Hybrid-Electric Power Generation Testbed

This paper details the design and components of a high-power density Hybrid-Electric Power generation testbed that is being built by the Eagle Flight Research Center at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Florida. The system consists of a twin-rotor rotary Wankel engine, a radial flux Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine used as the generator along with its inverter/controller, a 400 V Lead-acid battery pack, a vehicle control unit, and the associated thermal systems. The system weighs 324 lbs. (147 kg) before fuel and is estimated to achieve peak power of 134 hp (100 kW) with the High-Voltage battery and sustained power of 70 hp (52 kW) with just the hybrid-electric system. With 8 gallons of fuel, the system is estimated to realize a specific energy of 0.37 hp-h/lb. (0.61 kWh/kg), and a specific power of 0.46 hp/lb. (0.76 kW/kg). The system control was implemented on the Vehicle Control Unit using a feedforward-feedback control loop with user-defined speed and output power values.