Journal Article
High Efficiency, Hydro-Mechanical Passenger Vehicle Transmission using Fixed Displacement Pump/Motors and Digital Hydraulics
2012-04-16
2012-01-0624
It is widely accepted that the plug-in hybrid vehicle is the most economically viable near-term solution to the petroleum and CO₂ problems associated with passenger vehicles. The battery and electrics costs of gas/electric plug-in hybrid vehicles can be significantly reduced with the use of a hydraulic transmission and the implementation of hydraulic regenerative braking. This has not been done to date due to the unavailability of a low cost, reliable, compact, and efficient hydraulic transmission. This paper describes a conceptual design of such a transmission and evaluates its performance using the attributes of existing components. The main causes of the lack of past success with hydraulic transmissions are the many drawbacks of variable-displacement hydraulic pumps and motors. This transmission is based on fixed displacement pumps and motors to avoid these drawbacks.