Browse Topic: Fuels and Energy Sources
ABSTRACT GenShock is an energy-harvesting, semi-active shock absorber. The device converts vertical travel of a vehicle suspension system to useful electricity. On defense platforms, this power ranges from a few hundred watts to several kilowatts. Conventional shock absorbers provide damping by dissipating suspension energy as heat, while GenShock provides damping by generating electricity. For an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, the energy harvested by GenShock is used for reducing alternator load. The energy can also be conditioned for battery charging to address vehicle hotel loads. GenShock is also semi-active capable, in which each unit can stiffen or loosen in concert with the terrain, vehicle speed and load conditions for improved maneuverability. This paper presents a characterization of GenShock technology in its form and function of a direct replacement shock absorber that has regenerative and semi-active capabilities
ABSTRACT AVL is developing a family of modular Auxiliary Power Units (APUs) based on the current gasoline range extender engine/generator developed by AVL for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. These military specific variants will utilize the same basic architecture as the gasoline version while incorporating semi-direct fuel injection that is compatible with diesel fuel as well as kerosene based fuels such as F-44, JP-5, JP-8, Jet-A, etc. A systems engineering approach to the engine, generator, and power electronics modules enables a wide range of power outputs and packaging options to be easily developed from the base unit
Summary This paper discusses the latest techniques in vehicle modeling and simulation to support ground vehicle performance and fuel economy studies, enable system design optimization, and facilitate detailed control system design. The Autonomie software package, developed at Argonne National Laboratory, is described with emphasis on its capabilities to support Model-in-the-Loop, Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Component-in-the-Loop (CIL), and Hardware-in-the-Loop simulations. Autonomie supports Model-Based Systems Engineering, which is growing in use as ground vehicles become more sophisticated and complex, with many more subsystems interacting within the vehicle and the environmental conditions in which the vehicles operate becoming more challenging and varied. With the advent of hybrid powertrains, the additional dimension of vehicle architecture has become one of the design variables that must be considered. This complexity results in the need for a simulation tool that is capable of
ABSTRACT General Dynamics Land Systems has developed an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) that provides 508A at 28VDC, for 14.2 KW. It is a stand-alone system, independent of the vehicle systems, except for utilizing vehicle fuel and vehicle batteries. Power is generated by a 570 amp alternator that is belt-driven by a diesel engine. It is load following which improves fuel efficiency and eliminates the probability of “wet stacking.” All the major components are commercially available and the APU is ready for production
ABSTRACT Fuel Cell Systems offer high efficiency, quiet, clean, low signature power generation. To be useful for military applications they must use commonly available logistic fuels: JP8 is the primary fuel of choice. This paper reports the results of 1000 hour tests of innovative hardware to desulfurize and reform JP8. Results from early testing of a 6 kW fully integrated PEM fuel cell system operating on JP8 are also presented
ABSTRACT There is continued demand for military vehicles to provide increased fuel economy. Recent trends have appropriately turned to the development of duty cycles that better represent the real-life usage of vehicles. The advent of hybrid electric propulsion and power system architectures offer opportunities for reducing fuel consumption and greater power generation flexibility. The challenge is to effectively quantify the predicted performance for the architectures under consideration using tools that are applicable to shorter development schedules. This paper discusses the importance of using multidomain physics-based computer simulations to perform the fuel consumption analyses. The models used include mechanical, electrical, magnetic and thermal effects, and their intimate interaction in order to predict the fuel consumption for a tracked vehicle traversing courses at varying speed, up and down hills, and negotiating turns. This paper also compares the fuel consumption
ABSTRACT Under the sponsorship of TARDEC, UTRC is developing 5–10 kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) Auxiliary Power Units (APU) that will be capable of operating on JP-8 with a sulfur concentration of up to the specification’s upper limit of 3000 ppmw. These APUs will be sized to fit within the relatively tight space available on U.S. Army vehicles such as the Abrams, Bradley and Stryker. The objective of the base development program that commenced in August 2010 is a 1000 hour TRL-5 demonstration of an APU in an Abrams configuration by mid-2013. This SOFC system is expected to provide power to the 28 VDC vehicle bus at a net efficiency ≥35%. In addition, the noise level is anticipated to be far below that generated by combustion engine-based APU concepts. UTRC has completed the Preliminary Design of the system and has finalized the overall system configuration and the requirements for each of the components. During the Preliminary Design phase, evaluations of the performance of sub
ABSTRACT One of the main thrusts in current Army Science & Technology (S&T) activities is the development of occupant-centric vehicle structures that make the operation of the vehicle both comfortable and safe for the soldiers. Furthermore, a lighter weight vehicle structure is an enabling factor for faster transport, higher mobility, greater fuel conservation, higher payload, and a reduced ground footprint of supporting forces. Therefore, a key design challenge is to develop lightweight occupant-centric vehicle structures that can provide high levels of protection against explosive threats. In this paper, concepts for using materials, damping and other mechanisms to design structures with unique dynamic characteristics for mitigating blast loads are investigated. The Dynamic Response Index (DRI) metric [1] is employed as an occupant injury measure for determining the effectiveness of the each blast mitigation configuration that is considered. A model of the TARDEC Generic V-Hull
ABSTRACT The military has a need to source propulsion systems that have enhanced efficiencies, lower noise signatures, and improved lifetimes over existing power systems. This is true for energy storage systems on unmanned ground vehicles and for manned vehicles (i.e., Auxiliary Power Units). Fuel cells have the promise to achieve all of these goals. However, to be truly effective, these advanced systems should integrate seamlessly with the current supplies of energy storage (batteries) and energy sources (logistics fuel). The largest fuel cell development hurdle to date has been the ability to handle sulfur concentrations present in logistics fuel. Secondly, the reformer must be capable of several thousands of hours of operation utilizing logistics fuels without loss of performance due to sulfur or carbon deposition. Advancements in several key technologies have the potential to allow development of a logistics fueled solid oxide fuel cell with similar size, weight, and power
ABSTRACT The following paper describes the new SAPA automatic transmissions for the future military vehicles. The very high mobility requirements, the reclaim of weight, power & space and the actual relevance of the fuel consumption require a rethinking and a new vision of the automatic transmission concept and design. This is what SAPA has been working on for the last 12 years obtaining excellent technical and commercial results, a concept aimed at reducing the power losses of the conventional powershifting transmission eliminating the torque converter, reducing the spin losses -due to hydraulic pumps and friction discs-, and improving vehicle mobility on variable terrain situations as off-road
ABSTRACT Electric vehicle (EV) aggregation to provide vehicle-to-grid (V2G) services is a topic that has generated research into the economics and viability of using EVs for more than transportation, but little has been demonstrated to this point. This is especially true of using bidirectional power flows to move energy to the grid from EVs or to provide variable charge and discharge control. Our work focuses on implementing bi-directional functionality to demonstrate both V2G services and islanded microgrid support. The use of an intelligent microgrid controller combined with an EV aggregator provides new control capabilities for EV participation as energy storage devices
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