COMPUTER SIMULATION OF A TURBO-ELECTRIC HYBRID POWERTRAIN FOR MASS TRANSPORT

Requirements for compact, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly powertrains for public transport have been prompted by customer demand leading to Government legislations as well as technological breakthroughs. These requirements include: reduction in investment cost, minimisation of emissions, reduction of maintenance costs, and improvements in energy efficiency. The present contribution describes the series hybrid powertrain as alternative concept to the internal combustion engines. The topology of a particular type of series hybrid powertrain is further detailed and the constituent elements of continuous power and energy storage discussed. For the configuration, an advantageous powertrain to provide continuous power is argued to be turbo-electric. This is a directly coupled high speed permanent magnet generator to a gas turbine engine. This powertrain is argued to have an improved performance, reliability, maintainability and environmental acceptability over the internal combustion engine. These arguments are further substantiated through simulation results from software specially developed for hybrid powertrains. (A) For the covering abstract see IRRD 888398.