SELECTION OF PROPULSION

SYSTEMS FOR AUTOMOTIVE

APPLICATIONS

Pierre Duysinx
LTAS – Automotive Engineering
Academic Year 2018-2019

1
Bibliography
◼ R. Bosch. « Automotive Handbook ». 5th edition. 2002. Society
of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
◼ M. Ehsani Y. Gao, S Gay & A. Emadi. Modern Electric, Hybrid
Electric, and Fuel Cell vehicles. Fundamentals, Theory and
Design. CRC press. 2005.
◼ G. Genta. Motor Vehicle Dynamics – Modeling and Simulation.
World Scientific Publishing. 2003.
◼ T. Gillespie. « Fundamentals of vehicle Dynamics », 1992,
Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
◼ W.H. Hucho. « Aerodynamics of Road Vehicles ». 4th edition.
SAE International. 1998
◼ J.Y. Wong. « Theory of Ground Vehicles ». John Wiley & sons.
1993 (2nd edition) 2001 (3rd edition).
2
Outline
◼ Specification of propulsion systems for automobiles
◼ Ideal motorization
◼ Other characteristics
◼ Alternative thermal motorizations
◼ Steam engines
◼ Stirling engines
◼ Gas turbines
◼ Piston engines
◼ Categories, working principles, torque and power curves
◼ Rotary piston engines
◼ Electric motor
◼ Electric traction system
◼ Types of electric machines
◼ Batteries

3
Outline
◼ Hybrid motorization
◼ Definition
◼ Layout
◼ Architecture
◼ Fuel cells
◼ Definition
◼ Fuel cell powered hybrid vehicles
◼ Comparison

4
Specification of propulsion
systems

5
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
◼ Remind first that the operating point of a system is governed by
the equilibrium between the power (forces) of the plant and the
load.
◼ The operating point is obtained by the intersection of the power
(torque) curves of the plant and of the resistance loads

Plant curves Resistance load curves

Equilibrium

Rotation speed

6
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
◼ Ideal characteristics of
power plant for vehicle
propulsion: the power curve
should be close to constant
power for any regime and so
power
the torque curve is
proportional to inverse of
speed
Torque
◼ The constant power plant is
the propulsion that
maximizes the power Speed /
transmitted to the vehicle for rotation speed
any velocity
7
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
For low speed operation, the Torque
◼
Adhesive
friction between the wheel
and the road is limiting the
transmitted force C max
= Re µFz
◼ Intrinsic limitation to the
maximum

Fx
max
=  Fz

C max
= Re F x
max
=  Fz Re
speed

8
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
◼ Sensitivity of drivers
◼ At low speed: we are sensitive to the acceleration:
◼ Large acceleration capability

◼ Large drawbar pull High (constant)

◼ Large traction force
torque
◼ Large gradeability capability

◼ At high speed we are sensitive to the power of the motor to be

able to overcome the resistance forces (mainly aerodynamics)

High (constant)
power

9
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
◼ Motorizations that are close to ideal specification
◼ Electric machines (DC motor with separately induction supply)
◼ Steam engines (Rankine cycles)
◼ Piston engines have less favorable characteristics:
◼ Stall rotation speed
◼ Non constant torque and power
◼ Transmission necessary
◼ Why are they dominant? Because there are also other criteria to
be considered!
◼ Weight to power ratio
◼ Reasonable energy consumption
◼ Low production cost
◼ Easy to start…
10
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
◼ In addtion, piston engines take benefit of a long history of
innovation and improvements
◼ Improvement of fuel consumption
◼ Electronic fuel injection,
◼ Lean burn techniques
◼ Turbocharged engine and direct injections
◼ Variable valve timing…
◼ Control of emissions in reducing pollutant emission (CO, NOx, HC,
PM, etc.)
◼ 3 ways catalytic reduction
◼ DeNox and SCR
◼ DFP
◼ Etc.

11
Ideal characteristics of vehicle power plant
◼ Other criteria for vehicle power plants
◼ Constant power
◼ Weight to power ratio
◼ Large speed operation range
◼ Reasonable energy consumption
◼ Control of pollutant emissions
◼ Low production cost
◼ Easy to start and operate
◼ Serial production
◼ Low maintenance
◼ High reliability
◼ Medium life time: 200.000 km about 2000 working hours

12
Alternative power plants
◼ Other combustion engines (internal / external)
◼ Steam engines (Rankine cycle)
◼ Gas turbines (Brayton cycle)
◼ Stirling engines
◼ Rotary piston engines (Wankel engine)

◼ Other propulsion systems

◼ Electric machines
◼ Hydraulic and pneumatic motors
◼ Hybrid propulsion systems
◼ Fuel cells and electrochemical converters

13
 Alternative power plants
Vehicle propulsion

Combustion engines Electric motors

Internal combustion External combustion DC AC

Reciprocating engines
Otto, Diesel, Stirling engine
Wankel, Steam engine (Rankine)
2T / 4T

Continuous combustion
Gas turbine
Axial piston engines

Hybrids

14
Steam engines

15
 Steam engines

Cugnot’s Faradier,
First automotive vehicle

Steam locomotive

16
Steam engines

Wout = Win + Qin - Qout

17
Steam engines

18
Steam engines

Double piston stroke: uniflow steam engine

19
Steam engines
◼ Advantages:
◼ Nearly ideal power / torque curves close to constant power
◼ Is able to withstand temporary overcharges producing high
torque at low speed, so that there is no need for
transmission
◼ Large range of possible fuels (external combustion)
◼ Emission of pollutants can be widely minimized because of
the external combustion
◼ Drawbacks
◼ Poor weight to power ratio
◼ Poor volume to power ratio
◼ Set-up time is very long
◼ Old solutions had a low efficiency (less than 20% in 1800ies
steam locomotive with exhaust of steam)
20
Stirling engine

21
Stirling engine
◼ Working principle of Stirling engine is
based on a closed cycle and a working
fluid (helium or hydrogen) that is heated
and cooled alternatively
◼ The Stirling engine is an external
combustion engine
◼ It is made of two iso thermal processes
and two iso volume process.
◼ The heat source calls for an expansion
phase while the cold source is associated
with the compression phase
◼ Both sources are separated by a
regenerator.
◼ The theoretical efficiency of Stirling cycle
is equal to the Carnot efficiency with the
same difference of temperature.
22
 Stirling engine

Source Bosch,
Automotive
handbook

Step I: The power piston (1) in lower position. The displacer piston (2) is moving in upper
position. The working fluid is pushed in the cold chamber (3)
Step II: The power piston is compressing the cooled gas in isothermal process
Step III: The displacer piston moves downward and pushes the gas to the hot chamber (4)
through the regenerator (6) and the heater (7)
Step IV: The hot gas is expanding and is delivering some work to the power piston. The
displacer piston is moved downward 23
Stirling engine
◼ Advantages:
◼ Very low specific pollutants emissions (external combustion)
◼ Low noise generation
◼ Several fuels can be used
◼ Practical efficiency is equivalent to the best Diesel engines
◼ Drawbacks
◼ In the state of the art: poor power to weight ratio
◼ Mechanically complex
◼ Low acceleration capabilities (better suited to stationary
applications)
◼ Too high manufacturing cost
◼ Penalized by the large heat exchanger surface (air / air exchanger)

24
 Stirling engine

Torque / speed curves of a Stirling

engine (Eshani et al. 2005)
Practical layout of a Stirling engines with
opposed pistons (Eshani et al. 2005)
25
 Stirling engine

Performance and fuel consumption of

a Stirling engine with 4 cylinders for
vehicle traction (Eshani et al. 2005)

26
Gas turbine

27
Gas Turbine
◼ Gas turbines are ones of the oldest types of internal combustion
engines
◼ Gas turbines are based on the Brayton cycle, which is an open
cycle
◼ They include an air compressor, a combustion chamber and an
expansion turbine.
◼ Turbine is actuated by the working fluid and converts the heat
energy of the fluid into mechanical power. The shaft can be
connected to a generator or connected to the wheels (generally
via a mechanical gear box).
◼ The combustion chamber of the gas turbine can burn a wide
variety of fuels: kerosene, gasoline, natural gas…

28
Gas Turbine

29
Gas Turbine

30
Gas Turbine
◼ Advantages:
◼ High power to weight ratio
◼ Ability to use a wide range of fuels
◼ Low emissions of pollutants CO et HC
◼ Good mechanical balancing and low vibrations because of the
rotary motion
◼ Flat torque curves for double shaft solutions
◼ Long periods between two maintenances
◼ Disadvantages
◼ Low efficiency away from the design point
◼ Bad fuel efficiency away from the nominal design point
◼ High cost (high temperature materials, heat exchangers)
◼ Bad dynamic responses (slow rotation acceleration)
◼ High rotation speed ➔ need for a large reduction gear box to
connect o the wheels (and so a weight penalty)
31
 Gas Turbine

Performance and fuel consumption of

Gas turbine with exchanger a gas turbine Konograd KKT. Eshani
Eshani et al. 2005 et al. 2005
32
Gas Turbine
◼ One reports several tentative applications of gas turbines to
automobile
◼ As soon as the WWII, Rover has been interested in gas turbines
and has realized prototypes between 1950 and 1961.
◼ In 1963, the Rover BRM 00 has participated to the La Mans 24
hours with Graham Hill et Richie Gunther and has finished in 8th
position.
◼ Later, gas turbines have been applied in heavy vehicles such as M1
Abraham armored vehicles.

33
Gas Turbine

Turbine Car by Chrysler (1963)

34
Piston engines

35
History of ICE
◼ 1700: Steam engine
◼ 1860: Lenoir motor (efficiency h~5%)
◼ 1862: Beau de Rochas defines the working principles of internal
combustion engines
◼ 1867: Motor of Otto & Langen (h~11% and rotation <90 rpm)
◼ 1876: Otto invents the 4-stroke engine with spark ignition
(h~14% and rotation < 160 rpm)
◼ 1880: Two-stroke engine by Dugan
◼ 1892: Diesel invents the 4-stroke diesel engine with
compression ignition
◼ 1957: Wankel invents the rotary piston engine

36
Piston engines (Gasoline and Diesel)
One distinguishes several variants
◼ Fuels:
◼ Gasoline, diesel, LPG, Natural Gas, H2, bio-fuels…

◼ Thermodynamic cycles:
◼ Otto : spark ignition engine
◼ Diesel : compression ignition engine

◼ Fuel injection
◼ Direct or indirect
◼ Turbocharged or atmospheric

◼ Cycles
◼ 2 strokes
◼ 4 strokes
37
Classification
◼ The 4-stroke engine
performs the 4 steps in 4
strokes, that is, in two
crankshaft rotations.

◼ The 2-stroke engine carries

out the four steps in two
strokes, that is, in one
crankshaft rotation.

◼ The rotary engine: the

rotating motion is replacing
the alternating motion. The
rotor rotation realizes the
four steps in one rotation
38
Classification

SI engine

2 strokes 4 strokes

Carburator Injection Carburator Injection

CI engines

2 strokes 4 strokes

Indirect Indirect Direct

Direct Injection
injection injection Injection
39
4 stroke engines: gasoline
◼ Stroke 1: Fuel-air mixture is introduced into the cylinder
through intake valve
◼ Stroke 2: Fuel-air mixture compressed
◼ Stroke 3: Combustion (roughly constant volume) occurs and
the product gases expand producing the work
◼ Stroke 4: Product gases are pushed out of the cylinder
through the exhaust valve
FUEL
A
I Ignition
R

Fuel/Air
Mixture Combustion
Products

Intake Compression Power Exhaust

Stroke Stroke Stroke Stroke 40
4 stroke engines: gasoline
◼ Advantages:
◼ The spark ignition engine relies on a well-known principle, on
mature and well mastered technologies,
◼ Good weight to power ratio
◼ It is able to work while burning different fuels: gasoline, diesel,
methanol, ethanol, natural gas, LPG, hydrogen…
◼ It takes benefit of a large amount of technological developments to
control the emissions of pollutants

◼ Disadvantages:
◼ Bad fuel economy and tedious emission control (HC, CO et NOx)
when operated at part load and cold temperature conditions

41
4 stroke engines: diesel
◼ The Four stroke Compression Ignition (CI) Engine is generally
denoted as the Diesel engine
◼ The cycle is similar to the Otto cycle albeit that it requires a
high compression ratio and a low dilution (air fuel) ratio.
◼ The air is admitted in the chamber and then compressed. The
temperature rises the ignition point and then the fuel is injected
at high pressure. It can inflame spontaneously.
◼ There is no need for a spark and so keeping a stoichiometric air
fuel ratio is not necessary.

42
4 stroke engines: diesel
◼ Stroke 1: Air is introduced into cylinder through intake valve
◼ Stroke 2: Air is compressed
◼ Stroke 3: Combustion occurs (roughly at constant pressure)
and product gases expand doing work
◼ Stroke 4: Product gases are pushed out of the cylinder
through the exhaust valve
A
I Fuel Injector
R

Air Combustion
Products

Intake Compression Power Exhaust

Stroke Stroke Stroke Stroke 43
4 stroke engines: Diesel
◼ Advantages:
◼ Higher efficiency because of the higher compression ratio
◼ Largely developed and technological availability
◼ Low CO and HC emissions

◼ Disadvantages:
◼ Larger PM and NOx emissions ratios
◼ Heavier and larger than gasoline engines, but still good compared
to other technologies

44
2-stroke engines
◼ Dugald Clerk has invented the 2-stroke engine in 1878 in order
to increase the power to weight ratio for an equal volume.
◼ The 2-stroke engines is also simpler with regards to the valve
system
◼ The 2-stroke principle is applicable to both spark ignition engine
and to compression ignition engine. It is however more usual
with spark ignition engines (small engines for tools).
◼ The 2-stroke engine involves two strokes and the cycle is
carried out during a single crankshaft revolution.

45
 2-stroke engines

Stroke 1: Combustion
Exhaust
port products expand doing
work. Gas are sent to
Fuel-air-oil
mixture
exhaust line.
compressed Fresh air (and fuel) replaces
Check the exhaust gas.
valve Expansion Exhaust Intake (“Scavenging”)
Crank
shaft Stroke 2: Fuel-air mixture is
introduced into the cylinder
and is then compressed,
combustion is initiated at
Fuel-air-oil
the end of the stroke.
mixture
* Power delivered to the
CompressionIgnition crankshaft on every revolution
46
2-stroke engines
◼ Compared to 4-stroke engines, 2-stroke engines have
◼ A higher power to weight ratio since there is one power stroke per
crank shaft revolution.
◼ Simple valve design.
◼ A lower fabrication cost.
◼ A lower weight.
◼ However several drawbacks:
◼ Incomplete scavenging or too much scavenging.
◼ Higher emission rates: emissions of HC, PM, CO are quite badly
controlled (even though mitigated for CI 2-stroke engine)
◼ Burns oil mixed in with the fuel
◼ Exhaust gas treatment is less developed than for the 4-stroke
engines
◼ Most often used for small engine applications such as lawn
mowers, marine outboard engines, motorcycles….
47
Indicated mean effective pressure
◼ The indicated mean effective pressure imep is a fictitious
constant pressure that would produce the same work per cycle
as if it acted on the piston during the power stroke

◼ The expression of the work done during the working stroke by

one piston

◼ The work of the ncyl pistons over the cycle is:

48
Indicated mean effective pressure
◼ The work of the ncyl pistons over the cycle is:

◼ For a 2*nR-stroke engine the duration of the cycle is given by

N [turn/s] or w in [rad/s]
◼ Then power is given by

◼ And the torque writes

49
Indicated mean effective pressure
◼ The indicated mean effective pressure imep is a fictitious
constant pressure that would produce the same work per cycle
as if it acted on the piston during the power stroke

◼ imep does not strongly depend on engine speed.

◼ imep is a better parameter than torque to compare engines for

design and output because it is independent of engine speed, N,
and engine size, Vd.

50
Brake mean effective pressure
◼ The brake mean effective pressure (bmep) is defined
similarly to the indicated mean effective pressure as a fictitious
constant pressure that would produce the same brake work per
cycle as if it acted on the piston during the power stroke

Wb 2  C  nR bmep  Vd
bmep = = → C=
Vd Vd 2  nR

◼ If the power is quite variable with the speed, the torque

remains less sensitive to the rotation since bmep is less variable
with the rotation speed.

51
Torque speed curves of ICE
◼ Suppose that the gas pressure is remaining constant along the
power stroke, its work is given by:

◼ The work of the ncyl pistons over the cycle is:

◼ For a 2*nR-stroke engine the duration of the cycle is given by

52
Torque speed curves of ICE
◼ It comes the power curves with respect to rotation speed:

◼ The torque speed curve is

w w
53
Engine mechanical efficiency
◼ A part of the thermodynamic work produced by the fluid is lost
to overcome the engine frictions, the heat losses as well as the
work to pump the gas in and out of the engine
◼ The friction power is used to estimate as a whole the power
dissipated by these losses:

◼ The mechanical efficiency of the engine is defined accordingly

as:

54
Engine mechanical efficiency
◼ The engine efficiency depends on the opening of the throttle
valve, of the engine design and of course of the engine rotation
speed

◼ Typical values of mechanical efficiency for car engines at full

open throttle are:
◼ 90% @ 2000 rpm and 75% @ max power regime

◼ Closing the throttle valve increases the pumping work and so

reduces the work available at brake as well as reduces the
mechanical efficiency. This efficiency drops at zero for idle
regime.

55
Brake and indicated mean effective pressure
◼ Order of magnitude of the brake mean effective pressure of
modern engines:
◼ Four-stroke engines:
◼ Atmospheric
◼ SI engine: 850 – 1050 kPa
◼ CI engine: 700 – 900 kPa
◼ Turbocharged
◼ SI engine: 1250 - 1700 kPa
◼ CI engine: 1000 - 1200 kPa
◼ Two-stroke engines
◼ SI engine : idem 4 stroke
◼ Large 2-stroke diesel engines (e.g. boat) ~1600 kPa
◼ Remark
◼ Bmep is maximum at maximum torque and wide open throttle
◼ At nominal power, the bmep is lower by 10 to 15%
56
Power and torque as function of the rotation speed

◼ One observes that the power

curve exhibits a maximum when
engine rotation speed increases.
This maximum power is called
nominal power or rated power.
◼ The brake power increases as
long as the torque does not drop
too drastically.
◼ At high regimes, after nominal
regime, the friction power
increases a lot and the brake
power is finally decreasing

57
Power and torque as function of the
rotation speed
Rated brake power ◼ At low regimes, the torque is
reduced compared to maximum
torque, because of heat losses
1 kW = 1.341 hp increases between the gas and
the piston or the cylinder sides
since the time spent in the
chamber becomes longer.

Max brake torque

58
Piston engines characteristics: fuel consumption

Gasoline engine Diesel engine

59
Piston engines characteristics: emission rates

60
Wankel Rotary Engines

61
 Wankel rotary engines
◼ In 1951, Felix Wankel began to develop
the rotary piston engine at NSU.
◼ The rotary engine uses a rotary
mechanism to convert the gas pressure
into a rotating motion instead of using
reciprocating pistons.
◼ The four-stroke cycle takes place in a
variable volume pocket located between
the interior of an oval-like epitrochoid-
shaped housing and the rotor that is
similar in shape to a Reuleaux triangle.

62
Wankel rotary engines

63
Wankel rotary engines
◼ Advantages
◼ Perfect balancing of the rotating mass that allows high rotation
speeds
◼ Favorable (linear) torque curve
◼ Compact and simple design
◼ Lightweight
◼ Can be operated with various fuels such as H2
◼ Disadvantages
◼ Lower efficiency than piston engines (lower compression ratio)
◼ Slightly higher specific emissions (HC, NOx, CO)
◼ The combustion chamber does not allow the compression ignition
(Diesel) cycles
◼ Manufacturing cost is more important

64
Wankel rotary engines
◼ Wankel rotary engines were
first used in NSU vehicles
◼ After the NSU bankruptcy,
Mazda bought the rights for
the patents of the rotary
engines
◼ In use for a limited number
of models, specially sport
cars (e.g. Mazda RX8)
◼ Future applications of rotary
engines may be related to its
ability to be operated with
alternative gaseous fuels
such as H2
65
Electric traction

66
 Electric cars

◼ Electric cars were very dominant at the turn of the 20th century
but they were substituted by ICE engines in the period from
1905 to 1915
◼ Revival interest for electric cars at every petrol or energy crisis
◼ But up to now, electric cars have always experienced a
commercial failure
◼ At the turn of the 21th century, electric propulsion systems are
coming back at the front stage
67
Electric propulsion
◼ Advantages: Bolloré BlueCar
◼ Zero direct emission
◼ Low noise emissions
◼ Regenerative braking
◼ High torque at low speed
◼ Good driving comfort → urban application
◼ Simple mechanical transmission (generally no gear box, no clutch),
speed and torque regulation,
◼ Perfect solution if external power supply (catenaries)
◼ Disadvantages:
◼ Batteries: cost, extra-weight, life time
◼ Charging time (~6 hours)
◼ Limitation of range (200 km)
68
 Electric propulsion

Electric drivetrains are basically composed of four components:

1. The electrical power source: battery if the energy is stored
on board or catenaries system if connection to an external
source as electric cables or rail is possible.
2. Power electronics to regulate the power, the speed, the
torque.
3. The electric machine that can be operated in a reversible
mode (motor or generator).
4. A simple mechanical transmission to communicate the
mechanical power to the wheels 69
Traction electric machines
DC MOTORS AC MOTORS
◼ Serial or separated excitation ◼ Asynchronous machines
◼ Price still high (-) ◼ High maximum speed
◼ Reliability and control (+) ◼ Low maintenance, high
◼ Maintenance (brush) (-), reliability
◼ Weight (-) ◼ Weight
◼ Max speed (-) ◼ Good efficiency (~95%)
◼ Efficiency ~80% (-) ◼ Synchronous machines
◼ Control by chopper with ◼ Maintenance, efficiency ,
PWM command reliability (+)
◼ Expensive (-), max speed
lower than AC async (-)
◼ Inverter with vector
command (f,I,V)

70
 Batteries performances

Batteries Lead-Ac Ni-Cd Ni-MH Zebra Li-Ions

Useful specific energy 17 38 62 74 105
[W.h/kg]
Specific power [W/kg] 90 79 118 148 294

Charge – discharge 60 65 80 85 85
efficiency [%]
Life cycles [cycles] 600 1200 1200 1200 1000

Specific cost [€/kW.h] 0,339 0,508 1,159 0,781 0,734

71
 Batteries challenge

Fuel / energy systems Gasoline Diesel Li-Ions

Specific energy [W.h/kg] 11.833 11.667 105

Average efficiency while 12 18 80

driving [%]
Specific energy at wheel 1420 2100 84
[W.h/kg]

Gap 200!
72
 DC electric motors

T = B i L cos 

Working principal of a DC motor

73
Performance curves of electric machines

74
Power electronic and control of DC machines

Working principle of a chopper

75
DC motor: series and separated excitation

DC series motor DC motor with separated excitation

76
DC tractions motors
◼ Advantages of DC motors
◼ Mature technology
◼ Control of DC motor is well known: speed control from
DC energy sources
◼ Variable resistor → chopper (PWM)
◼ Early usage of DC motors in vehicles based on DC series
architecture: electric vehicles, tramways, etc.
◼ Disadvantages:
◼ Brushes (carbon) must be replaced periodically:
replacement after 3000 h of operation
◼ Range of supply voltage is limited
◼ Lower specific power
◼ Medium energy efficiency (80-85%)
◼ Rotor losses : very difficult to eliminate

77
DC electric machines

78
Traction motor characteristics
◼ At low speed: constant torque
◼ Voltage supply increases with
rotation speed through electronic
converter while flux is kept
constant

◼ At high speed: constant power

◼ Motor voltage is kept constant
while flux is weakened, reduced
hyperbolically with the rotation
speed

◼ Base speed: transition speed from

constant torque to constant power
regime 79
 Traction motor efficiency map
◼ Electric machine efficiency in
transformation of the electric
power to mechanical power is
dependent on the operating
conditions

◼ It can mapped on the

torque/power-speed space
◼ The efficiency mapping can be
different when working as a motor
(generally lower) than as a
generator (often better)

80
Hybrid propulsion systems

81
Hybrid propulsion powertrains
◼ The hybrid powertrains combines two kinds of propulsion
systems and their related energy storages.

◼ Generally the hybrid electric powertrains are the most famous

ones. They combine typically an ICE engine, an electric motor
and an electric energy storage system

◼ The goal of hybridization is to combine the advantages of the

two basic systems (e.g. zero emission of EV and range of ICE)
and to mitigate their drawbacks.

◼ There are two major families of powertrain layout combining the

two types of propulsion systems.
82
 Highly variable operating conditions
◼ Major difficulty of propulsion systems: the highly variable
operating conditions (torque, regime)
◼ Objective: sizing to average power consumption!
◼ Approach: store the energy  hybrid vehicle

Source G. Coquery, INRETS 83

 Improve powertrain efficiency
150

◼ Use energy storage to level energy flow

Puissance Machine électrique [kW]

100

◼ Recover braking energy 50

◼ Smooth out the peak powers 0

◼ Reduce the size of the prime mover as -50

close as possible to the average power -100

-150
0 200 400 600 800 1000

Improve the energy efficiency of the

Temps [s]

◼
engine
◼ Reduce the engine size while preserving
the torque
◼ Reduce the internal engine frictions
◼ Place the operating points of the
engines in its most favourable regimes

84
Hybrid propulsion powertrains

Serial hybrid

Parallel hybrid

85
Various level of hybridization
◼ Different level of hybridization:
◼ Stop engine at stall operation (Start &
Stop)
◼ Motor assist using e-motor
◼ Ex Integrated Motor Assist by Honda
◼ Full hybrid
◼ Ex Toyota Prius

86
 Mild hybrid vehicle
Tank

◼ Mild architecture
◼ Small electric machines
Chemical
(~10 kW) Engine
Battery

◼ Fonction Stop & start Electrical

Low braking energy

Node M/G
◼ Mechanical
recovery capability
◼ Power / torque assist of the
main engine
Transmission
Honda Insight
◼ Substitute the flywheel, the Wheels
starter and the alternator
◼ No pure electric mode

87
 Full hybrid: Toyota Prius transmission

Transmission of
Toyota Prius II

88
 Various level of hybridization
◼ Different charging scenarios
◼ Charge sustaining
◼ Charge depleting
◼ Plug in
◼ Range extender using a fuel cell

89
 Hybrid hydraulic vehicle
◼ Alternative energy storage:
hydraulic accumulator
◼ Low specific energy density:
◼ Mild hybrid
◼ Motor assist
◼ High power density
◼ Well adapted to heavy vehicles
◼ And to urban vehicles with
frequent stop and start with
high acceleration /
decelerations
◼ Development linked to the
emergence of novel class of
reversible motor pump with a
low cost Smart Truck
90
Fuel cells

91
Fuel cell
Electrolyte
Hydrogen Oxygen (air)

2H+ +2e- + ½ O2 → H2O

H2 → 2H+ + 2e-
Water
H+

Anode Cathode

e-

92
 Fuel cell
◼ Fuel Cell carries out a direct
conversion of the fuel chemical
energy into electrical energy
◼ Electrochemical reaction (oxide-
reduction) without flame
◼ The hydrogen H2 – O2 fuel cell:
inverse reaction of water electrolysis
◼ High fuel efficiency (>50%)
◼ Major issues:
◼ Cost related of electrodes made of
precious metal, membranes
◼ Reliability
◼ Hydrogen technology: a real start? Viessmann-Panasonic domestic93
FC
 Fuel Cell Powered Tank
Vehicles Chemical

Fuel cells Electrical

◼ Zero emission vehicle:
◼ No pollutant emission except Battery Mechanical
H2O Node

◼ Nearly silent operation M/G

◼ Powertrain layout based on
series hybrid architecture
◼ Energy storage based on
batteries or supercaps Wheels
◼ Recovery of braking energy
◼ Increased autonomy > 400km
◼ Hydrogen production &
distribution
◼ H2 or plug-in hybrid on
electrical network
◼ H2 production and
distribution? Toyota Mirai 94
Fuel cell
◼ Fuel Cell principle: direct electrochemical (oxydo-
reduction) converter of Hydrogen fuel into electricity

◼ Advantages:
◼ No direct emission of pollutants
◼ Using other fuels (ex methanol) is possible via reforming
process
◼ High conversion efficiency (theoretical 90% - practical 55%)
◼ Drawbacks
◼ Not a fully mature technology, but rapidly gaining
confidence
◼ Thermal control is still partly an open challenge
◼ Lower power to weight ratio compared to ICE
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Comparison of propulsion systems

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Comparison of propulsion systems

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Comparison of propulsion systems
◼Torque curve is favourable to electric
motors and steam engines

◼Torque curve of gas turbines is very

bad with regards to the application

98