Experimental investigation of a compressed air vehicle prototype with phase change materials for heat recovery

Abstract

In this article, an experimental investigation, where the prototype of a new pneumatic vehicle is developed, analyzed, built and tested, is presented. The system consists of a novel compressed air system integrated with phase change materials for heat recovery purposes. The prototype is experimentally built and tested at the Ontario Tech. University in Oshawa. Three different phase change materials of polyethyleneglycol, paraffin and alkane mix are investigated for heat recovery purposes in the prototype where the paraffin option provides the best result. Furthermore, the maximum torque is found to vary between 21 and 44 Nm with changing shaft speed from 400 to 1300 rpm while the minimum torque fluctuates between 3 and 13 Nm with changing shaft speed in the same range. The supplementary battery power is 2.18 kW, and the turbine work output is found to be 1.25 kW with the recovered air which is provides 36% of the heat required to heat up the PCM heat exchanger. The total motor work consumed during operation is 18.36 kW, which can be defined as the acceptable capacity for the powertrain of a small-size city vehicle. The energetic efficiency for the compressed air vehicle is 59.5% while the exergetic efficiency becomes 51.0%, respectively.

Layout analysis of compressed air and hydraulic energy storage systems for vehicles

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Accumulated and transient exergy analyses of pneumatic systems with isochoric and isobaric compressed air storage tanks

“…Pneumatic systems powered by compressed air are widely used in industrial and non‐manufacturing sectors 1 . Air can be compressed and regulated to the desired pressure for various applications, such as power transmission, control, conveying, spraying, vacuum generation, compressed air energy storage, hybrid vehicle, hypersonic wind tunnel, geological air gun, air explosion extraction, and so on 2‐7 . In many facilities, compressed air is usually regarded as the “fourth utility” after electricity, water, and natural gas.…”