The weather was horrible. It rained and poured on the first day of testing, but by the second day, it cleared up and was beautiful.
On the first day, we took it for a spin and got it up to 25 mph. We didn't want to push it too far too soon especially with the way the weather was behaving.
On the second day, we took it up to about 40mph in a parking lot and it behaved exactly like a normal car except there were no engine noises and turning on the vehicle was eerily quiet.
Here is more of a press shot showing off Temple. The car looks so sexy and beautiful that it is hard not to see this as the future of passenger vehicles especially when the performance and handling is on par with a normal vehicle.
Here is a short video of the initial testing. We took it out for about 5 hours of testing and probably drove about 20 miles at varying speeds.
We are getting close to testing the vehicle and this means we have to start putting it back together, stop debugging it for a couple of days, and finalize what we have at this point.
This is what the car looked like two days before it got moved out of our lab and into road testing.
We had to put the lights back on the vehicle and wire them up in addition to writing controls to engage the back reverse and brake lights when they would engage on a normal vehicle.
This is what it looked like the morning of the road test.
We tried to pick a good day weather wise for the test, but the weather took a turn for the worst as we began to take the vehicle out of our lab and onto the road.
One of the biggest advantages with electric vehicles and hybrids, is the lack of engine noise when the vehicle is not moving or moving at low speeds. Soundproofing was added to the rear of the passenger cabin to help reduce the noise created through road noise and the IC generator. This was achieved by building a sound wall, adding a sound box around the IC engine, and through modifying the muffler of the IC engine.
This is a view of the Geo Metro muffler that was adapted to fit the IC engine we have.
This shows the sound wall and a view of the rear of the vehicle.
The transportation industry has yet to find an alternative fuel source with the efficiency and practicality necessary to lower oil use. In order to further this transition, this project bridges the gap between gasoline and fuel cell technology for vehicles. The prototyped power train for this project features a 288 olt battery system combined with an internal combustion engine generator and hydrogen PEM fuel cell to provide addition range. The current state of the power train allows charging for the batteries solely from a house hold socket. The projected range of the battery system is 60 miles; the combined range is 400 miles. To achieve the combine range, the ICE generator and hydrogen PEM fuel cell must be integrated into one system. Our focus is to design a Battery Management System (BMS) to charge the batteries either from a house hold socket, gasoline generator, or hydrogen fuel cell. This would require a charge algorithm that we will have to design. The BMS will be designed and simulated in LabVIEW. The BMS will optimize the performance of the batteries by monitoring the charge and discharge cycles, as well as protect the batteries from power surges and thermal failures.
HEATT Team 2010:
A series hybrid electric powertrain with range extending capabilities using hydrogen and gasoline was designed and modeled in LabVIEW to simulate performance and fuel economy. To prove the concept of this design, a 2000 Audi TT was converted to a plug-in AC electric vehicle with a 90kW electric motor and LiFePO4 batteries. A 10kW internal combustion generator and 5kW hydrogen PEM fuel cell were installed to extend the range of the vehicle allowing the vehicle to be run easily on today’s fuel and ready for hydrogen, a possible future alternative fuel.
Using the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standard city and highway driving tests, the vehicle has a theoretical increase in fuel economy from 22/31 miles per gallon (MPG) respectively to 230/173 miles per gallon gasoline equivalent (MPGGE).
