Bringing it to the masses

[R.I.D.E.]

Actually it does not require any specific engine. The design is the powertrain. I uses a hydraulic accumulator and separate infinitely variable rotary piston drives in each wheel where the brakes would normally be. The drives actually replace the brake components.

There was a very similar system posted on Green Car Congress on April 17th 2009. You can see all their hydraulic hybrid articles by going from the home page, to the topics page and searching the powertrain section, specifically hydraulic hybrids.

I also have an engine design that could be utilized as both primary power and storage, in place of the accumulator.

The core basis of the design is to make a car that is substantially simpler than anything currently available. Most current systems are still fairly bulky, but my design could be built small enough to be installed on a bicycle.

Both the engine and in wheel drives are based on the old WW1 era rotary aircraft engine, but with significant changes. You can view an animation of the Gnome rotary aircraft engine by googling "animated engines gnome". The animation is by a gent named Mat Keveney.

My design reverses the pistons and cylinders, and eliminates the connecting rods. The pistons act directly on the outer rim of the housing and RPM is the same as the RPM of the wheels in a car, about 800 RPM at 60 MPH, depending on tire diameter. The cylinders and pistons rotate around an adjustable journal that sits in an offset position in the axle hub. Adjusting the journal from the other side of the hub changes the stroke of the rotating cylinders and provides foreward, neutral and reverse, by changing the stroke from positive, to 0, to negative. This provides 100% regenerative braking by converting vehicle inertia into accumulator pressure.

The real advantage is the engine (electric, diesel, gasoline, whatever) only has to recharge the accumulator when its storage level drops to a minimum amount, and only bring it to a maximum amount. All drive forces to the wheels are provided by the accumulator to all 4 wheels, or 2 wheels depending on the amount of acceleration or braking desired. Any individual wheel can be disconnected from the powertrain by simply positioning the normally offset journal in the neutral, or no stroke position.

Blistering acceleration. 100% regeneration at all 4 wheels, and a system that can not be driven wrong. The vehicle hypermiles itself with no driver controlled strategies necessary.

No matter how hard you accelerate or brake, as long as you keep the tires traction intact, the efficiency is within a few percentage points of the same.

Hyppermiling is transformed from a driver controlled imput to a basic design parameter of the vehicle itself.

Tech will have the first functional prototype running in a couple of weeks. Some people are starting to think of investing. The last question is how good is it. I am hoping for better than 95%. Current designs are past 90% but fall of at higher speeds. I want 95% at 70 MPH and 97% at 45 or less. The current EPA configuration uses the pump driving through a conventional differential which means the pump has to spin as high as 3000 RPM or more.

By eliminating the differential, and using a unit at each wheel we keep rpm below 1000 (about 100 MPH) where efficiencies are much better.

regards
gary