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With the improvement of occupants’ awareness on the driving safety, hydraulic retarder applications increase quickly. The traditional hydraulic retarder, on the one hand, exhausts the waste heat of transmission oil by the engine cooling system; on the other hand, the engine power should be consumed to drive the water pump and the engine cooling fan for maintaining the normal operation of the auxiliary braking system. In this study, the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) instead of the traditional hydraulic retarder water-cooling system is applied to achieve the effective temperature control of the hydraulic retarder, while the waste heat of transmission oil could be recovered for saving vehicle energy consumption. The ORC fluid selection needs comprehensive consideration for the net power of the ORC and the optimal temperature range of the retarder transmission oil at both the inlet and outlet end, which is the key issue to ensure the stability and efficiency of the ORC system performance.

The heavy duty trucks have large engine power and drive continuously in mountainous area, so the heat dissipation of engine is very important. In the traditional cooling system with fixed transmission ratio fan, the cooling capacity is insufficient and the engine is easy to be over-heated when the engine is working in low speed and heavy load conditions. Owning to the bigger size of electric motor compared to the hydraulic motor, it is not suitably applied to the heavy duty trucks. Contrasted with the electric motor, the hydraulic drive cooling system is widely applied in heavy duty trucks due to smaller size, larger power, continuous speed modulation and flexible installation location. However, the low transmission efficiency of the pump-motor system results in high power consumption of the cooling system. In this paper, the mathematical and simulation model of hydraulic-driven fan cooling system is established for the specific engine.

Vehicle exhaust waste-heat recovery with thermoelectric power generators can improve energy efficiency, as well as vehicle fuel economy. In the conventional structure, the hot-end of thermoelectric module is directly connected with the outer wall of the exhaust pipe, while the cold-end is connected with the water pipe’s outer wall of the vehicle engine cooling cycle. However, the variety of vehicle engine operating conditions leads to the instability of the hot-end temperature, which will reduce the generating efficiency of the thermoelectric modules and also shorten its service life. This research is on the basis of constructing a heat transfer oil circulation, and to study the action principles and implementation methods of it.

The hydraulic retarder is an auxiliary braking device used in heavy duty vehicle. It generates braking forceby liquid damping effect and makes inertial energy into thermal energy of the transmission medium when the vehicleis in thedownhill. The traditional thermal management system of the hydraulic retarder dissipates the heat of transmission medium out of the vehicle directly, which causes a big waste of energy, meanwhilethe thermal management system components need to consume engine power. This study applies organic Rankine cycle (ORC)cooling system to meet the high power cooling requirements of the hydraulic retarder and recover waste heat energy from the transmission medium at the same time and then supply energy to the thermal management system, which could save the parasitic power of the engine and improve the comprehensive energy utilization ratio of the vehicle.

The hydraulic retarder, an important auxiliary brake, has been widely used in heavy vehicles. Under the non-braking working condition, the air resistance torque in the working chamber, which is formed by the rotor of hydraulic retarder's stirring the air, causes pumping loss. This research designs a new type of hydraulic retarder, whose helium is charged into working chamber through closed loop gas system under non-braking working condition, can reduce the parasitic power loss of transmission system. First, under non-braking working condition, the resistance characteristics are analyzed on the base of hydraulic retarder pumping model; then, considering some parameters, such as the volume of chambers and the initial gas pressure, the working chamber gas charge model is established, and the transient gas charge characteristics are also analyzed under non-braking working condition.

Turbochargers can improve vehicle dynamic performance and fuel economy and are applied widely nowadays. Due to the existence of turbocharger delay effect, acceleration delay and insufficient combustion are its disadvantages. By collecting high pressure gas which generates from the inertia of the turbine in the intake passage when the vehicle slows down, the gas can be supplied for the shortage while the vehicle is accelerating, which can reduce turbocharger delay effect directly. However, turbocharger delay effect changes a little at high speed and low speed which is subjected to the air inflation and short air-release time. This paper adds a set of pressure booster device on the existing inflating-deflating device, whose thermal energy comes from the compressed air and lubricating oil, to facilitate pressure increasing in inflating-deflating device and help the chamber change sooner, which avails to relieve the delay effect.

The hydraulic retarder is the most stabilized auxiliary braking system [1-2] of heavy-duty vehicles. When the hydraulic retarder is working during auxiliary braking, all of the braking energy is transferred into the thermal energy of the transmission medium of the working wheel. Theoretically, the residual heat-sinking capability of the engine could be used to cool down the transmission medium of the hydraulic retarder, in order to ensure the proper functioning of the hydraulic retarder. Never the less, the hydraulic retarder is always placed at the tailing head of the gearbox, far from the engine, long cooling circuits, which increases the risky leakage risk of the transmission medium. What's more, the development trend of heavy load and high speed vehicle directs the significant increase in the thermal load of the hydraulic retarder, which even higher than the engine power.

The hydraulic retarder is an important auxiliary braking device for the heavy vehicle, which has some characteristics, such as the big brake torque and long duration braking, when the vehicle is traveling in braking state. However, the transmission power loss will be produced when the vehicle is traveling in non-braking state. This transmission power loss is called Air-friction. Firstly, the air flow distribution characteristics of retarder cavity are studied by computational fluid mechanics, and the Air-friction characteristic in different conditions is analyzed. Then, according to the Air-friction characteristics for the condition of different filling density, a set of vacuum air loss reduction system is designed. Meanwhile, the test bench for retarder Air-friction is set up, the test data of the revolution speed, pressure in cavity and air loss resistance is obtained according to the test bench for hydraulic retarder.

The hydraulic retarder is a significant auxiliary braking device [1] for the heavy duty vehicle. Traditionally, cooling circulatory system of the hydraulic retarder was coupled with the engine cooling system [2], and the thermal energy of the transmission medium would be cooled by the engine radiator ultimately. For this scheme, radiator's spare heat removal capacity could be fully utilized whereas the cooling system is very complicated and is hard to maintain. Furthermore, the corresponding of thermal management system lags behind the power change of the retarder. In this research, integrated cooling evaporation system is developed for the hydraulic retarder, which makes the cooling water contact with the transmission medium through the stator wall, so that it can rapidly response to the thermal variation of the retarder, keep the stability of the oil temperature and meanwhile reduce the risk of cooling medium leakage.

The Organic Rankine Cycle System is an effective approach for recovering the engine exhaust thermal energy. The physical characteristic of the Rankine fluid is the key factor for the capacity and the stability of the expander power output. In the research, the influences of the evaporator organic medium state and flow rate on the expander power output are fully analyzed for the sufficient utilization of the waste thermal energy. Firstly, the exhaust characteristics of the diesel engine were processed by the data of the bench test. Then, the integral mathematical model of the Organic Rankine Cycle was built. Based on the comparison for the 2-zone and 3-zone evaporator, the influence for expander output are analyzed especially emphasis on the factors of engine working condition, the flow rate, temperature and state of Rankine fluid.

The vehicle engine exhaust wastes heat. For the conventional scheme, the hot-end of the thermoelectric module is connected with the exhaust pipe, while the cold-end is cooled through the vehicle engine cooling cycle. The variation of vehicle engine operating conditions brings the instability of the hot-end temperature, which affects the power generation performance of thermoelectric materials and increases the damage risk to the thermoelectric materials caused by the high temperature. This research adopts the heat transfer oil circulation as the intermediate fluid to absorb the dynamic heat flux of the vehicle engine exhaust so as to release the heat steadily to the hot-end of the thermoelectric module. The thermal characteristics of the target diesel vehicle engine exhaust gas are evaluated based on the experimental data firstly.

The hydraulic retarder, which is an auxiliary brake device for enhancing traffic safety, has been widely used in kinds of heavy commercial vehicles. When the vehicle equipped with the retarder is traveling in non-braking state, the transmission loss would be caused because of the stirring air between working wheels of the rotor and the stator no matter if the retarder connects in parallel or in series with the transmission [1]. This paper introduces an elaborate hydraulic retarder air-friction reduction system (AFRS) which consists of a vacuum generating module and pneumatic control module. AFRS works to reduce the air friction by decreasing the gas density between working wheels when the retarder is in non-braking state. The pneumatic control model of hydraulic retarder is built first. Then various driving conditions are considered to verify the performance of the AFRS. The stability of the AFRS is analyzed based on the complete driveline model.

To make full use of engine exhaust heat and further improve the utilization of the energy efficiency of the heavy truck, thermoelectric module is used to contribute to thermoelectric power generation. The hot-end temperature of the module varies with the engine operating condition because it is connected with the exhaust pipe. The cold-end of the thermoelectric module is mainly cooled by engine cooling system. Increasing the temperature difference between the hot-end and cold-end of the thermoelectric module is a good way to improve the thermoelectric conversion efficiency. For the poor controllability of the hot-end temperature of the thermoelectric module, this study puts forward by lowering the cold-end temperature of the thermoelectric module so as to ensure the improvement of the thermoelectric conversion efficiency. The cooling circle for the cold-end of the thermoelectric module which is independent of the engine cooling system is built.

Vacuum cleaning vehicle is the necessary equipment for the Municipal Sanitation Department to keep the road surface clean and the dust subsidence system is the heart unit for the proper function of the cleaning vehicle. The reasonable design of this system could increase the load capacity of the vehicle and be convenient for the garbage collecting and dumping. Meanwhile, the engine power could be relatively reduced and the influence on the environment duo to the dusty air in the outlet could be also effectively improved. In the study, the gravity dedusting principle is used firstly for structure design to reduce the flow rate of dust particles inside the lower part of the dust subsidence system. The ruleless collision loss among dust particles is reduced and thereby the fan power is saved. By means of a reasonable separated chamber design and the use of inertia baffle, the sort management for dust particles is developed and the work stress of the export filter is released observably.

In order to obtain the comprehensive evaluation of thermal management system for the retarder, the complete driveline thermal management model is built. The characteristic parameters for the thermal management system are determined and the hydromechanical characteristics for the retarder are fixed by the rig test. On the basis of the same whole vehicle driving cycle, comparing to the traditional mechanical-drive system, the independent-drive system makes the working temperature of the heat source more stable. Meanwhile the parasitic power caused by the radiator fan is decreased markedly on the condition that the heat reject requirement of the heat source is satisfied.

In heavy truck driveline system, the components often include clutch, transmission, transfer case, drive shaft, etc. A fluid torque converter could be equipped in front of the transmission in order to improve the starting performance. Meanwhile, a hydraulic retarder could be introduced for auxiliary braking so as to adapt the truck to the brake on long downgrade in mountainous regions. Thus, the driveline heat load would have a notable increase. Both the fluid torque converter and the hydraulic retarder would produce a large quantity of heat, and a special cooling system is needed for adjusting the transmission fluid temperature with which the gains are potentially very large [1]. The heat load for driveline is often calculated based on empirical formula. For the heavy truck, however, if the heat value is underestimated, driveline components would suffer from overheated damage.