Title: Optimal design of power-split hybrid tracked vehicles using two planetary gears

Authors: Zhaobo Qin; Yugong Luo; Keqiang Li; Ziheng Pan; Huei Peng

Addresses: Department of Automobile Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China ' Department of Automobile Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China ' Department of Automobile Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA

Abstract: Power-split hybrid powertrains have been thus far successfully used for production passenger cars and SUVs but not for tracked vehicles. For example, track-type dozer (TTD) models available on the market tend to use series hybrid powertrains, which frequently require a separate steering mechanism, resulting in lower operating efficiency. Looking to the future, power-split hybrid technologies have high potential for tracked vehicles to circumvent the limitation. This paper proposes a design process for multi-mode power-split powertrains for TTDs. The powertrain is designed to achieve separate control of two sides of tracks to enable skid steering. To systematically search for all possible designs with two planetary gears, an optimal methodology is proposed. An automated modelling process is proposed to obtain the dynamic equations efficiently. A near-optimal energy management strategy is used to achieve near-optimal fuel economy. The approach successfully identifies two designs that achieve better overall performance compared with the benchmark.

Keywords: hybrid tracked vehicles; power-split hybrid vehicles; optimal design.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2018.098264

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2018 Vol.77 No.1/2, pp.43 - 66

Accepted: 19 Jul 2018
Published online: 07 Mar 2019 *

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