HEV Auxiliary Power
Unit Specialists
Sponsors:
NCATT
(National Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies
& U
of I Mechanical Engineering Department
Objective Statement
- Test and monitor the current interaction
between the auxiliary power unit (APU) and the hybrid electric vehicle’s
(HEV) power electronics unit and battery pack. Based on these results,
improve the performance of the APU. This primarily involves increasing
the power that the APU can supply when the battery pack is at a high state
of charge. Also, improve the cold start of the Kohler engine.
Solution
- An electronic meter and tachometer
were installed to monitor the performance of the APU. The meter displays
the APU voltage, current, kilowatt hours, and amp hours. The tachometer
displays the speed of the Kohler engine. It was determined from testing
and modeling that governing the speed of the engine to obtain maximum power
would dramatically improve performance. Due to the systems voltage constraint
and fluctuating loads, the goals were accomplished by adding an electronic
speed governor . To make it easier to start the Kohler engine, an additional
choke setting was implemented. A circuit has also been proposed that will
allow the APU to be disconnected from the load during startup.
TEAM MEMBERS:
Sasa
Nestorovic David
Reiche Chris
Daniel
Details and Pictures of Project Deliverables:
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