Micro gas turbine for range extender electric vehicle: development of numerical model for investigating some validation parameters

Abstract

This research is to investigate the performance and different parameters of implementing micro gas turbine (MGT) in range extender electric medium-heavy vehicle. In this paper, different software’s such as Simulink, Advisor and Virtual engine – gas turbine have been used for different sorts of investigation and validation. From the analysis, it is found that in MGT-based system, the specific fuel consumption per 100 km is almost 2.8 L lower than the conventional diesel-based system. Sensitivity analysis shows the fluctuation of fuel consumption in case of mass and battery capacity and from the quasistatic simulation approach, it is seen that the acceleration time of MGT vehicle is almost two-thirds of the diesel operated vehicle to reach the average speed. In addition to this, the effect of relative humidity is also analysed taking two conditions into consideration. The use of evaporative turbine inlet cooler increases vehicle performance and reduces the emissions greatly. Some numerical findings are compared with experimental values found in literature and data provided by the manufacturer for proper validation.

Keywords

• micro gas turbine
• less fuel consumption
• acceleration driving cycle
• effect of humidity
• evaporative cooler
• emission characteristics