TITLE:
Development of a Series Hybrid Electric Aircraft Pushback Vehicle: A Case Study
AUTHORS:
Scott Cash, Quan Zhou, Oluremi Olatunbosun, Hongming Xu, Sean Davis, Robin Shaw
KEYWORDS:
Hybrid Electric Vehicle, HEV, Design, Development, Traction Motor
JOURNAL NAME:
Engineering,
Vol.11 No.1,
January
23,
2019
ABSTRACT: The work presented in this paper is a progression to previous research which developed an overcurrent-tolerant prediction model. This paper presents some of the modelling and development techniques used for the previous research, but more emphasis is placed on the requirements of the case study; whereby an aeroplane pushback tug is converted into a series Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV). An iterative design process enabled the traction motor, transmission, generator and battery pack parameters to be tailored for this vehicle’s unique duty cycle. A MATLAB/Simulink model was developed to simulate the existing internal combustion engine powertrain as well as the series HEV equivalent for comparative analysis and validation purposes. The HEV design was validated by comparing the simulation results to recorded real-world data collected from the existing vehicle (torque, speeds etc.). The HEV simulations provided greater fuel savings and reduced emissions over the daily duty cycle in comparison to the existing vehicle.