Title: Fuel saving potential of hybrid powertrains with electric waste heat recovery for heavy duty line haul applications

Authors: Harsh Vinjamoor; Chinmaya Patil; Vasilios Tsourapas; Mihai Dorobantu

Addresses: Corporate Research and Technology, Eaton Corporation, USA ' Corporate Research and Technology, Eaton Corporation, USA ' Corporate Research and Technology, Eaton Corporation, USA ' Vehicle Group, Eaton Corporation, USA

Abstract: 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. A preliminary analysis was carried out in Vinjamoor et al. (2014). This paper will present a higher fidelity simulation study that was performed in order to evaluate the potential fuel economy benefits of a heavy duty powertrain for commercial line haul vehicles. The architecture includes hybrid electric components paired with an electric waste heat recovery system. The electric energy can be used to reduce engine load during peak power requests. The sources for electric energy are both braking energy regeneration as well as conversion of waste heat to electricity via a high speed generator. We carry out an analysis to study the effect of reduced drag coefficients on the increase in available regeneration energy. Typical heavy duty truck duty cycles are used for our analysis.

Keywords: hybrid powertrains; exhaust energy recovery; waste heat recovery; heavy duty vehicles; line haul applications; fuel economy; aerodynamic drag; rolling resistance; brake energy regeneration; energy saving; heavy vehicles; truck aerodynamics; heavy duty trucks; simulation; hybrid electric vehicles; HEVs; electric energy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPT.2015.071719

International Journal of Powertrains, 2015 Vol.4 No.3, pp.196 - 207

Received: 24 Mar 2014
Accepted: 24 Jul 2014
Published online: 16 Sep 2015 *

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