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Diesel Electric Propulsion

Discussion in 'Technical Discussion' started by Crewagency, Nov 26, 2004.

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  1. popobowa

    popobowa New Member

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    Hi gentlemen,
    I was just reminded that ,many years back, I had intensely looked into a free piston Sterling motor powered by the Suns rays...via big trough collectors....and yhis Freepiston was supposed to move a linear generator...
    Nowadays , especially the latter, had become " the dogs bollocks" as a range extender . Toyota has released news of having made one with ,I believe it was over 45% thermal to kW efficiency,and 20kW output and at DLR, a German Areospace research Institute, they also have some running ..with 35 and 60kW el..their combustionchamber is in the middle of 2 oscillating pistons bouncing against a gasspring. Further combustionchambers instead of those springs should increase efficiency....

    Long story short: those would make very light, small AND very efficient generators. And with an efficiency of 45% equalling 190 g/kWh.....better than any small boat diesel which lies @ 220 for the best Commonrail and close to 300 for normal inj.

    The DLR models are rather small, app 80cm long and 15cmx15cm square...35kW, dont look heavy at all. 30 to 50kg maybe.

    Now with this tech I would go for serial hybrid, and still only need the same fuel per nm as the most ideal diesel setup.

    Any one of you having better knowledge of this tech?
    S
  2. costalive

    costalive Member

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    newport beach
    Not bored keep going!
  3. popobowa

    popobowa New Member

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    Costalive....youre working on linear freepiston el. generation? Or are you referring to another post?
    IThe good thing about FPLG is that the basics cant be protected by patents anymore...of course, it seems to me, that the devil lies in the detail here.
    Controlling heat, keeping it away from magnets, making strongest poss. magnets as pistontravel isnt very long, combustiontiming, metering of fuel and control of gas spring rebound force to enable var. compressionratio etc. etc.

    A fair bit of headache for the developers..but a lot of knowledge and tech is availiable and needs "only" to be adapted......throw us a hint if something in the 20 to 100kW powerenvelope is on its way...for me to be a guineapig mounting it in a fast cruising cat..which has to stay light.
    Very curious...
  4. popobowa

    popobowa New Member

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    I forgot to ask... as you might know:
    it seems to me that the gas spring side could theoretically be replaced by 2 additional combustionchambers which, in theory, should make the mashine even more efficient as the heat (frictionloss) of the gassprings replaced by working pistons?! of course more timing complications and heat buildup problems...but maybe for future experiments. Then i wonder why air is used as springmedia and not.. Nitrogen, as in the better gas shocks and all Aircraft gassprings..as it doesnt heat up.
  5. popobowa

    popobowa New Member

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    Searching the .www , I found only 2 companies with seemingly working prototype FPLG's, and one that doent look mechanically sound...
    Thr promising ones as far as I can tell are:
    Libertine from UK
    Mainspring from USA

    The other is an Israeli company, not giving any specs, only bold claims, and their method of joining the linear motors,4 at each corner, via a plate.. which must get very stressed if one LM creates slightly different resistance...

    I am really curious to see who has a viable product out first....

    Anyone of you know about other such projects ?