The whispering wheel [Dutch invention can make vehicles 50 percent more efficient]

Radio Netherlands ^ | 15 december 2003 | by Thijs Westerbeek,

[flashbunny]

I'm actually getting sick of the sound, moreso the ambient noise that combines with the engine and makes me have to crank up the radio to hear anything.

Give me an SUV with no wind noise and one of these motors, and as long as it has a GVWR that will get me a section 179 deduction, I'll buy it. If I want to hear the noise of an engine I'll buy something like an olds 442 for fun.

[Colorado Doug]

The concept of using electric motors at the wheel is really not new. LeTourneau built some really big front end loaders with a diesel running a generator which in turn powered electric motors at each wheel. These didn't use batteries as far as I know. Many diesels don't rev much over 1700 and from what I have seen, neither do generators.

By the way, this is not one of the big loaders

[Colorado Doug]

Here is a BIG one!

LeTourneau is an American company, not french

[norwaypinesavage]

Almost all electric motors are very efficient (better than 95%), as well as quiet. Small diesel generators are also quite efficient. Hybrid vehicles such as this have been around for decades. The issue is not efficiency, it is cost.

These vehicles are quite expensive, and battery replacement adds significant maintenance expense. Reduced maintenance batteries like nickel metal hydride are currently much too expensive in the energy density required for busses. This concept needs break throughs in cost, not technology.

[Dan Evans]

An engine converts chemical energy into mechanical energy, while a motor converts electrical (or magenetic) energy into mechanical energy...

Unless it's a solid fuel rocket -- which is called a rocket motor.

[Boiling point]

I am kind of a techno-geek, and have purchased some of those "rare earth" magnets to play around with. They are awesome and expensive! One about 1.5" dia.x .5" thick is about $12 surplus price. They are actually dangerous to play with! It cannot be removed from a piece of metal without a pair of vice-grips. If you get two of them that size close enough to attract each other, any flesh between them is coming off in a very painful fashion, which will need to be relieved with a helper with a pair of vice-grips! Great for fridge magnets too, no need to stick a picture of your kid up...just stick the kid.

[Consort]

Apeldoorn

[Arthur McGowan]

A relatively small tank of compressed air will drive a city bus using a simple air-piston engine. This, too, could recover energy from braking. Too simple, though, to make somebody $100 Billion.

[CurlyDave]

. A deisel engine delivers DC directly to the wheels. As an added benefit reversing the current makes for a great non-mechanical braking system. This stuff has been around for many years. I wonder why they cant make a car like this?

The diesel-electric trucks work on exactly the same principle as locomotives. The energy is delivered directly to the motors driving the wheels. There is no energy storage in batteries, except for the incidental storage for starting and housekeeping electricity--just like the battery of an ordinary car.

In this scheme the only thing the generator-motor replaces is the transmission. As I said current locomotives still work this way. The design has not changed since the early 1900s, and old electric motors from that era are still rebuilt.

The advantage is that for handling large amounts of power this is more efficient than a mechanical transmission.

[Dan Evans]

The idea has been around. I remember looking at this in a Popular Science article sometime in the mid-60's for a high-school science report.

I may have read the same article. But the electric motors were conventional and he used a gas turbine engine instead of a diesel.

[William Terrell]

Years ago Mother Earth News ran an article about a guy who put an aircraft starter motor in a pickup and ran it off of a generator driven by a 4 cycle gasoline engine, in the bed against the cab. He didn't use batteries; he just started up the engine.

[MarkL]

Still got those Ram Air IV heads? I'll buy them off you.

Sorry, they're long gone, as well as the rest of the car. I think that I traded it in on a Mercury Lynx wagon, back around 1985. Big dissapointment! I miss that car. It was a blast to drive, and I had really done quite a bit as far as performance mods...

It took quite a while, but eventually I got all sorts of great mods onto that car. Little things like those heads, a Holly 650CFM double pumper carb, I opened up the ram air scoops in the hood, although I didn't buy the ram air kit to make a pressurized air-box. Mr Gasket low rise air cleaner, OFFY low rise intake manifold, I can't remember the brand of the headers, but they had these anti-backflow cones in them. But the coolest part of the mods was a Doug Nash 5 speed transmission, and I changed the rear gears from the stock, I believe 3.4x to 2.6x (can't remember the exact numbers). The DN transmission was an underdrive, with a super low 1st gear. I had amazing power in first gear, but would up getting even better mileage on the highway. After the rear change and DN installation, I was getting almost 19MPG on the highway!

I really do miss that car... I was once clocked by the NY State Highway Patrol at 137mph, and using a stop-watch, I was able to go from 0 to 60 in less than 4.5 seconds! And the car handled GREAT!!! Goodyear Wingfoots, and the car had the TA handling package!

That car really had "sound and fury!" Going to the Lynx gave me lots of sound, just no fury... :-(

Mark

[Fred Hayek]

The diesel engines in locomotive service run at a low rpm - 750 to 1000 rpm range, in most cases. Keep in mind that these are also high displacement engines. For example, a GM-EMD 16V-710 will run about 4000 hp using a turbocharger at that rpm range, but that's also with 710 cubic inches per cylinder. Some rail diesels run at higher rpm's, however that is either due to lower displacement (such as some locomotives re-fitted with Caterpillar engines), or the alternator is also being used for passenger train power (typically 480V 3ph in US service for modern "head-end power" rolling stock). The latter is why the F40PH's used by Amtrak and some commuter agencies sound like they are running at max rpm - constant rpm to maintain the 60 Hz. The power output for this setup is changed by adjusting the excitation on the alternator field windings and the fuel rack settings on the diesel.

[templar]

They are awesome and expensive! One about 1.5" dia.x .5" thick is about $12 surplus price.

I picked up one about two years ago that is about 2 inches by 1 inch by 1/2 inch, about 25 bucks. The only way to get that thing off of a piece of steel is to slide it off the edge, it's gotta have hundreds of pounds of pull. Place it under a slanted board and roll a dime down the top of board and the dime will almost stop as it passes over it! Whatever you do, do not get it near a TV screen (trust me on this).

[Doctor Stochastic]

Actually, water injection just boosts octane by scavanging the free radicals. It does work (I put one on a Corvette years ago.) It doesn't directly produce more power but it would allow a higher compression ratio which does produce more power with greater efficiency. (Unfortunately, it also raises the oxides of nitrogen to an illegal level.)

[Dan Evans]

Is it hard on the engine?

[Doctor Stochastic]

It's better on the engine because the higher effective octane gives fewer knocks and pings. Of course, if one lives in the mountains, you can't get the engine to knock anyway.

In terms of power, the headers were the most effective. (Mine weren't noisy.) I did put a dragstrip shifter on too (the automatic shifted much more quickly than stock), these didn't hurt either the efficiency or the longivity.

[ChefKeith]

Golf carts have been using this for years

[chuckles]

......."Actually, water injection just boosts octane"......

I don't think water has octane. It does, however, cool the cylinder, which alows a leaner mixture without ping. It also adds power by the steam formed. If your car pings, (unusual today with knock sensors), You might try a cooler thermostat, say 160 deg.

[org.whodat]

Actually, water injection just boosts octane by scavanging the free radicals. It does work (I put one on a Corvette years ago.) It doesn't directly produce more power but it would allow a higher compression ratio which does produce more power with greater efficiency. (Unfortunately, it also raises the oxides of nitrogen to an illegal level.)

Actually the old water injection was first used on planes in WWII. Next the large diesel's used to power train's and other stationary generator's run about 850 RPM, consider that the piston's in one of these weigh's about 55lbs each. And to the other poster there never has been nor will there ever be a 100 mile to the gal carb like the old legend say's. Think air to fuel ratio and you will understand.