Performance of Air Motor with Regenerating System Designed for Propulsion of Bicycle

An air motor with regenerating system for propulsion of a bicycle was newly developed. An air motor was driven by the compressed air and the bicycle was propelled. When the bicycle was decelerating, the air motor was acted as a compressor and the kinetic energy of bicycle was regenerated as compressed air. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the performance of air motor and driving characteristic of bicycle. The air motor in this study was the reciprocating piston type like an internal combustion engine, and cylinder arrangement was in-line two-cylinder. The output power increased with an increase of supply air pressure although the maximum cylinder pressure was less than the supply air pressure. The output power decreased as the revolution increased due to friction loss. The maximum cylinder pressure reduced as the rotational frequency increased because the inlet valve opening duration was decreased. The regenerating pressure decreased at the high revolution because of compressed air leakage. The bicycle was gradually accelerated and the maximum velocity was about 10 km/h because the out put power was not enough to acceleration. Therefore, the friction loss of moving parts and air leakage should be improved to obtain the desired performance.