ASME District F - Early Career Technical Conference, ASME District F ECTC 2013
November 2 3, 2013 - Birmingham, Alabama USA
Shaobiao Cai
Yongli Zhao
ABSTRACT
Sustainable, clean, efficient energy has become a central
concern with growing interest among industries and academic
researchers. This paper presents the modeling and prototyping
of an air-powered automobile simulator for field study, using
clean pneumatic energy, a potential candidate for a new
generation of hybrid-vehicle technologies. The simulator was
designed to explore the applications of sustainable, alternative,
clean, efficient energy and to gain an in-depth understanding of
the engineering processes and methods of modeling such a
complex system. A power chain was designed to convert the
stored pneumatic energy into torque and deliver the power to a
driving wheel. A chassis was designed to meet the loading
conditions; it is made of recycled steel and aluminum. The
stability and effectiveness of the power transmission are
addressed in the prototype. It presents a great potential of new
technology development in the relevant areas of application.
INTRODUCTION
The car became the primary transportation tool in the
United States soon after its introduction. While enjoying the
convenience of it, concerns were raised as well among public.
Air pollution due to emission and energy consumption were
among the major issues and became even more serious
concerns due to the ramping up of gas prices and global
warming. According to World Almanac 211 [1] and WRI171
[2], a traditional cars engine uses about 65 percent of the
energy from the fuel just to move all its parts such as the
pistons and cams, plus what is wasted generating excess heat.
The transmission uses 6 percent of the energy from the fuel, the
accessory load 2 percent, and idling losses come to about 11
percent, leaving only about 16 percent of the energy to actually
make the wheels turn. Saving energy and increasing energy
efficiency thus became very important. In addition to energy
efficiency, pollution became another major concern with regard
to automobiles. Experimental data show that a gallon of gas
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techniques are not the focus of this paper, the details of which
are largely available in the literature [23, 24], and thus are not
presented here. The design and modeling are presented in the
following sections.
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(1)
(2)
where L1 and L2 are the distances from the line of action of the
weight W to the supporting points of the rear wheel and front
wheel, respectively. Here, L1 is 11 inches and L2 is 16 inches. Lg
is the vertical distance from the mass center of the system to the
ground. Because the air-drag force is relatively small at 10
mph, this element may be neglected in the preliminary
calculation. Based on the loading conditions, one can readily
calculate the reaction forces to the front wheel and the rear
wheel, which are Rf = 129 lb and Rr = 171 lb, respectively.
Motor Rotational Speed m (rpm) Determination
To determine the motor rotational speed, lets first consider
the simulator traveling at a linear velocity of V. To achieve the
velocity V, the shaft of the driving wheel needs to run at a
rotational speed of d, where the subscription d indicates the
driving wheel. The linear travel velocity and the rotational
speed d have a relationship as follows:
d = V/R
(3)
d
GR
(4)
f k k N
(5)
where N is the total normal load, here, the same as the weight.
The frictional torque Tf can be determined as follows:
Tf f k r
(6)
P T f m
(7)
V2
d
(
h
2 gz)V ndA Q W
t CV
CS
(8)
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area A the air passing through, Q is the net energy passing the
CV boundary through heat transfer, and indicates the time
rate of the relevant property.
(u
p V2
) V ndA W
2
(9)
where u is the internal energy of the air. Equation (9) provides
an estimation of the available work output from the motor shaft.
Equation (9) is a dynamic equation. The total energy initially
stored in the pressure tank can be estimated using a static form
of this equation. To estimate it, we may consider the pressure
vessel is control volume, and initially, no air passes through the
boundary (V = 0, W = 0). The equation for the energy stored in
the pressure vessel can be written as follows:
CS
Power Chain
The power chain is made up of two pressure tanks, two
regulators, an air filter and a lubrication system, an air motor, a
gear-chain system, and relevant adaptors and connectors. shows
The power chain arrangement is shown in Figure 4 below. The
compressed air from the air tank is regulated to provide reliable
air flow. The air flow is guided to pass through an air
filter/lubricator before input into the air motor for protection
purposes. The energy carried by the airflow is converted to
mechanical torque through the air motor. The output torque
from the motor is then transmitted through the gear-chain
system to the driving wheel of the simulator.
p
E (u ) d mh
(10)
where E is the total energy at the thermal dynamic state defined
by room temperature (T), pressure level (P), and volume ( );
m is the total mass of the air stored in the tank; and h is the
enthalpy of the air at room temperature and designated
pressure. For room temperature operations, T1 = T2, and inlet
location 1 has a pressure at p1. The outlet location 2 has a
CV
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The project was funded by the PSU common campus
research fund. Greg Kurtz, an undergraduate student
contributed to the manufacturing of the work.
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