Abstract:

The paper is devoted to assessing the prospects of reducing fuel consumption in hybrid vehicles by replacing diesel engines with gas turbines, taking into account the progress recently made in improving the efficiency of the latter. Possible reduction in fuel consumption is estimated separately for three vehicle classes in accordance with their total mass (light, medium and heavy). In each class, different engine power ratings were considered as well. Fuel consumption estimates are obtained for urban driving utilizing a recently proposed model, incorporating specific vehicle parameters. The results indicate that for light vehicles with arbitrary engine power rating and mid-sized vehicles whose engine power does not exceed 50 kW, transition to gas turbines leads to substantial fuel consumption reduction. On the other hand, for heavy hybrid vehicles with engines rated below 50 kW, transition to gas turbines leads to a lower but still significant fuel consumption reduction.

Keywords: fuel economy; diesel engine; gas turbine; hybrid vehicle; urban driving cycle