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With the increase of hotel and ancillary loads and replacement of engine driven mechanical and hydraulic loads with electrical loads, automotive systems are becoming more electric. This is the concept of More Electric Cars (MEC) that necessitates a higher system voltage, such as the proposed 42V, for conventional cars. In this paper, the development of the 42V electric power system for vehicle applications is reviewed. The system architecture and motor drive problems associated with the 42V electric power system are analyzed. Solutions to these problems are also discussed.

An electromechanical gear is presented along with design examples utilizing the electromechanical gear in hybrid electric vehicle drive trains. The designs feature the electromechanical gear (the Transmotor) in place of traditional mechanical transmissions and/or gearing mechanisms. The transmotor is an electric motor suspended by its shafts, in which both the stator and the rotor are allowed to rotate freely. The motor thus can provide positive or negative rotational energy to its shafts by either consuming or generating electrical energy. A design example is included in which the transmotor is installed on the output shaft of an internal combustion engine. In this arrangement the transmotor can either increase or decrease shaft speed by applying or generating electrical power, allowing the ICE to operate with a constant speed.

Currently, almost all the activities in the development of new generation of vehicles are focused on fuel cell powered vehicles (FCVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). However, there are still uncertainties as to which provides the maximum benefits in terms of performance, energy savings and impact on the environment. This paper compares the performance and parameter characteristics of FCVs and HEVs with a view towards an objective assessment of the relative performance of these vehicles. In particular, this paper reviews major characteristics of FCVs as zero or ultra-low emission vehicles (ZEV/ULEVs), their presumed high efficiency and potential for using alternative fuels, while also considering their limited performance at high power demands.

Two parallel HEV control concepts: ‘thermostat’ and ‘power split’ are compared in this paper. To achieve a substantial improvement in fuel economy, the ‘thermostat’ or ‘on/off’ control technique intended to improve the fuel efficiency of a series HEV has been adopted and designed for parallel HEV. Among different ‘power split’ concepts developed for parallel hybrids only the ‘electrically assist’ algorithm is considered in this paper. These two control concepts are compared for three parallel HEV architectures: pre-transmission, post-transmission and continuous variable transmission hybrids. The comparison study also includes the effect of hybridization factor-the ratio of the electric power to the total propulsion power. The matrices of comparison are level of performance, energy consumption and exhaust emissions. The SAE J1711 partial charge test procedure is followed.

In this paper, a mild hybrid drive train has been proposed. A small electric motor with low rated voltage (42 V) is used to (1) propel the vehicle at low speed, (2) replace the fluid-coupled torque converter and (3) realize regenerative braking. With proper design and control, the fuel economy in urban driving can be significantly improved without much change from conventional drive train to the mild hybrid drive train.

Significant amount of energy is lost in frequent braking, automatic transmission and engine idling for a conventional engine powered passenger car while driving in cities. In this paper, a mild hybrid vehicle drive train has been introduced. It uses a small electric motor with floating stator, called TRANSMOTOR and small and a battery pack. The transmotor functions as a generator, engine starter, frictionless clutch (electric torque coupler), regenerative braking and propelling. The mild hybrid drive train can effectively reduce the urban-driving fuel consumption by regenerative braking, eliminate of energy losses in conventional automatic transmission and engine idling. The drive train can use low voltage system (42V for example), due to the low electric power rating, and is more similar to conventional drive train than full hybrid vehicle. Therefore, less effort is needed to evolve it from conventional vehicles.

Hydrogen is the preferred fuel for low-temperature fuel cells that are envisioned by some for future transportation. A pure hydrogen supply is technically challenging, presently uneconomical, energetically costly and dangerous in many respects. The use of hydrogen carriers, hydrogen-rich chemicals is supposed to overcome these impediments. Among the several possible hydrogen carriers [1], ammonia is an interesting candidate that has benefited from some research in the 1960s and recently for fuel cells [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26], internal combustion engines [3, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, and 35] and gas turbines [36, 37]. This paper summarizes the past research on ammonia as a hydrogen carrier for fuel cell based transportation. The physical and chemical properties, the production, the storage, the safety aspects, and the on-board processing of ammonia are summarized.

The recent growing interest in electric vehicle (EV) and hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) demands for an efficient, reliable and economical motor drive for electric propulsion. However, searching for a suitable traction motor becomes quite involved when vehicle dynamics and system architecture are considered. This paper makes an in-depth investigation on two highly important traction motor characteristics, extended speed range-ability and energy efficiency, from vehicular system perspective. The influences of these two motor drive features on a pure EV, a post-transmission, and two pre-transmission parallel HEV with 20% and 50% hybridization are studied in this paper. Two EV-HEV software packages ‘V-ELPH’ developed by Texas A&M University and ‘ADVISOR’ from NREL are used for simulation purposes. Based on the results in this paper, a systematic method is developed regarding the selection of traction drives for EV and HEV propulsion systems.

The last quarter century has seen CO2 emissions increase at a steadily increasing rate. In the U.S.A. alone from 1970 to 1992 the CO2 emissions have increased from 5.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide to 6.6 bmt. The transportation industry contributes currently (1991 figures) 24.7% of the total emissions from the United States. Transportation utilization has grown faster, however, but more efficient vehicles allow for more travel without increasing the CO2 proportionally. The advancements made in the 1980s have reduced emissions by 21 million tons of CO2 per year on average. Electric Vehicles have been a proposed method of reducing the CO2 emissions due to transportation. Electric vehicles produce no emissions while driving, making them ideal candidates for heavily polluted and concentrated areas such as urban locations. However, it is debatable if electric vehicles are feasible on the global scale of CO2 reduction.

There is a growing interest in electric and hybrid electric vehicles (EV and HEV) due to their high efficiency and low emission. In EV and HEV, the characteristic of the traction motor is essential for the performance and efficiency of the EV and HEV. In this paper, the advantages of the extended constant power range characteristic of the traction motor for both propulsion and regenerative braking are analyzed. Simulation results are presented to verify the conclusions. Due to its several inherent advantages, especially its capability of having an extended constant power range, Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) is proposed as the candidate of the traction motor in EV and HEV. The design methodology of SRM for achieving an extended constant power range and the control strategy of SRM for regenerative braking in EV and HEV are presented.

Vehicle dynamics requires extended-speed, constant-power operation from the propulsion system in order to meet the vehicle's operating constraints (e.g., initial acceleration and gradeability) with minimum power. Decrease in power rating will decrease the volume of the energy storage system. However, extending the constant power operating range of the electric drives increases its rated torque, thereby, increasing motor volume and weight. This paper investigates the effect of extended constant power operation on battery driven electric vehicle (BEV) propulsion system taking the change in motor weight and battery volume into account. Five BEV systems with five traction drive having different base speeds are simulated for this study. The performances of the BEVs are obtained using FUDS and HWYFET drive cycles. Two EV-HEV software packages ‘V-ELPH’ developed by Texas A&M University and ‘ADVISOR’ from NREL are used for simulation testing.

Short circuit incidents on traction motors can cause ‘wheel-locking’ on the vehicle, and may have an adverse impact on vehicle stability. This paper investigates the necessity of fault-tolerant motors for EV and HEV traction applications. Reaction of resulting fault torques differ along with electric motor types and fault variety. The paper analyzes the short-circuit behavior of three basic motor types: permanent magnet, induction and switched reluctance motor. The analysis is based on the transient simulation of the three most common inverter short-circuit cases and their effect on vehicle stability.

The effect on vehicle performance of extending the constant power operating mode of electric drive motors for electric and hybrid vehicles is presented in this paper. Modern electric and hybrid vehicle designers have the selection of several technologies to choose from when selecting an electric drive motor. Each motor technology exhibits a particular torque vs. speed characteristic. Many of these technologies, most notably the switched reluctance machine, have capitalized on iron and copper utilization, extending their useful speed range. However, the extended speed capabilities of these motor drives have vehicle performance consequences. It is presented that vehicle performance is affected by changing the torque-speed characteristics of the drive motor. The extended constant power speed range motor can have smaller rated power than otherwise but suffer high speed passing performance.

This paper addresses the fundamental issues faced in the aircraft electrical system architectures. Furthermore, a brief description of the conventional and advanced aircraft power system architectures, their disadvantages, opportunities for improvement, future electric loads, role of power electronics, and present trends in aircraft power system research will be given. Finally, this paper concludes with a brief outline of the projected advancements in the future.

The desirable braking system of a land vehicle is that it can stop the vehicle or reduce the vehicle speed as quickly as possible, maintain the vehicle direction stable and recover kinetic energy of the vehicle as much as possible. In this paper, an electronically controlled braking system for EV and HEV has been proposed, which integrates regenerative braking, automatic control of the braking forces of front and rear wheels and wheels antilock function together. When failure occurs in the electric system, the braking system can function as a conventional man-actuated braking system. Control strategies for controlling the braking forces on front and rear wheels, regenerative braking and mechanical braking forces have been developed. The braking energy that can be potentially recovered in typical driving cycle has been calculated. The antilock performance of the braking system has been simulated.

Their easy availability, lower well-to-wheel emissions, and relative ease of use with existing engine technologies have made ethanol and ethanol-gasoline blends a viable alternative to gasoline for use in spark-ignition (SI) engines. The lower energy density of ethanol and ethanol-gasoline blends, however, results in higher volumetric fuel consumption compared with gasoline. Also, the higher latent heat of vaporization can result in cold-start issues with higher-level ethanol blends. On the other hand, a higher octane number, which indicates resistance to knock and potentially enables more optimal combustion phasing, results in better engine efficiency, especially at higher loads. This paper compares the fuel consumption and emissions of two ethanol blends (E50 and E85) with those for gasoline when used in conventional (non-hybrid) and power-split-type plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).

Unlike internal combustion engines, fuel cells cannot deliver full power upon cold start. Furthermore, while low temperature fuel cells are capable of cold start, medium and high temperature fuel cells are not and must be artificially heated to start. This paper analyzes the warm-up energy requirements of the three medium and high-temperature fuel cell technologies and their influence on the vehicle fuel consumption over various drive cycles. The appropriateness of each technology for a given type of vehicle is assessed. It is found that high temperature fuel cells are inadequate for the intermittent use characteristic of vehicles drive cycles. More research is required as this study is inconclusive for medium temperature fuel cells.

Studying the dynamics of electric motor drives is not easy. Indeed, there is no unified approach to model both the mechanical and the electrical elements of the motor drive in order to bring an intuitive understanding of the dynamic behavior. Moreover, for traction purposes, the machines are often used at field-weakening operation, which can be a source of unwanted oscillations. In this paper, the gyrator-based equivalent circuit modeling is presented. The method allows the understanding of some aspects of the dynamic behavior of DC motor drives such as the interaction between electric inductances and the rotor inertia and their oscillating behavior.

The depletion of the world oil reserves is a major problem facing the world community today. The number of years that oil resources can support our energy needs depends on its proven reserves, new discovery and cumulative consumption. As more countries evolve from developing nations into industrialized societies, the number of vehicles on the road skyrockets. This drastically increasing number of cars on the road is one of the main causes of the rapid depletion of the world oil resources. It also impacts the environment in the form of acid rain, global warming and increased concentrations of ozone near the surface of the earth. This basically leaves two alternatives, stipend the growth of industry or reduce the fuel usage of our vehicles. Recession is not very enjoyable, therefore great efforts are being made to improve the fuel efficiency of modern vehicles, but due to the physical characteristics of internal combustion engines, there is an efficiency limit.

Conventional friction brakes suffer severe limitations, including challenging integration with electronic driving aids. The integration of an eddy-current brake with the conventional friction brake was developed to remedy to these shortcomings [1]. The present work analyzes the impact of eddy-current brakes uses in conjunction with conventional friction brakes in both conventional and hybrid automobiles.