LATEST SPIN ON FLYWHEELS
Bellevue, WA Flywheel technology has at least matured to the point where the spinning devices may challenge chemical batteries as powerplants for electric cars.
American Flywheel Systems has patented a device featuring two counterrotating rim wheels, which spin at 200,000 rpm in a vacuum. A magnetic bearing virtually eliminates friction. And tube assemblies that connect each rim wheel to the bearing hub allow the wheel to expand radially during rotation. The wheels themselves are made of carbon-fiber windings.
The developers say flywheels travel farther on a single charge than chemical batteries and can unleash more power for quicker acceleration.
File name PMMAR92.TXT Popular Mechanics 1992: p. 12
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IS THERE A FUEL CELL IN YOUR FUTURE three sets of graphics,
New York, NY-- To zip past the limitations of battery-powered electric cars, engineers are building zero-emissions vehicles that carry fuel cells as powerplants.
Fuel cells, best know as Space Shuttle electricity sources, generate current when fed oxygen and hydrogen in the presence of an electrolyte. They beat batteries in terms of recharge time and consistent power output. Problems that remain to be licked are high cost, weight and low power density, but fuel-cell proponents say none of these is insurmountable.
Among more than a dozen fuel-cell car initiatives access the country is the Green Car, under development by Energy partners in West Palm each, Florida. Engineers are converting a consumer GTP to run on stored hydrogen with oxygen from the air. When paced through stop-and-go driving cycles, the vehicle's range should be 120 miles, about what is claimed for GMs Impact battery car.
The fuel-cell apparatus is complex, involving two fuel-cell stacks, a battery for cold starts, a heat exchanger and a 15-in. -Dia. hydrogen cylinder pressurized to 2000 psi. Still undecided is how to strip contaminants from the air that blows into the fuel cells.
Energy Partners will use the car as a testbed for fuel-cell powered vans, which the company is hoping to produce commercially by 1995.
Meanwhile, Missouri engineer Roger Billings has already driven a converted Ford Fiesta that he asserts can compete with gasoline-powered cars in terms of speed and economy. What's more, he says his vehicle, as a range of 190 miles, and a new car designed around the technology could run more than 300 miles.
Behind these claims lie two major fuel-cell improvements. Inside Billings' compact LaserCel, the membrane where the energy-releasing reaction takes place has been pocked with a laser to increase surface area and boost power output.
In addition, the cell is reversible, says Billings-Just feed it electricity and water overnight to replenish the hydrogen stock. This recharging generates enough pressure to squeeze the hydrogen into a superdense metal hydride.
Faced with skepticism, Billings plans to make the hardware available to a government lab to verify his claims. If they hold up, they'll go a long way toward sparking automakers interest in fuel cells.
The graphic of the car shows a tight, small sporty open-top with roll bar not unlike the Lambourgini. Something Mary Ann Chapman could adore. Couple with Israeli technology, such a car could go 400 - 600 miles on a charge.????
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File Name PMJAN94.txt Popular Mechanics, January, 1994.
ELECTRIC WHEELER
INDIO, CA -- The Mississippi River has carried some idiosyncratic watercraft over the years, but none as freewheeling as the Wandering Star. Brainchild of Southern California inventor Jerry LaBine, the 45-ft. Aluminum vessel will showcase homebuilt alternative technologies.
For one thing, Star will run on batteries. Its power sources: a photovoltaic array on its roof, a steam turbine driven by a solar concentrator and two submerged water turbines that turn with the river's flow.
A small paddlewheel will propel the boat, while four rudders will serve as heat exchangers to air-condition the cabin.
Star is slated for launch this spring on an expedition from the Gulf of Mexico to Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
Graphic: House boat on short stilts above two five part rafts made of high flotation pontoons.
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File name: PMNOV91.txt Popular Mechanics 1991 p. 20
Electric Thrust
Redmond, WA When AT&T's Telstar 4 communications satellite goes up in 1992, it will use an electric arcjet thruster the help hold itself locked in geosynchronous orbit. The small station keeping thruster will embody the first space-based demonstrating of the new technology.
In an arcjet, a direct-current electric arc leaps between a cathode and an anode to heat the decomposition products of hydrazine propellant. The arc begins at a small bottleneck and fans out across the thruster nozzle, which acts as part of the anode. Propellant gases passing through the arc quickly heat up and expand against the nozzle, providing a specific impulse higher than that attained by conventional rocket thrusters. NASA and the Strategic Defense Initiative Office are funding research to develop high-powered arcjets fueled by hydrogen.
Straightforward graphic showing exhaust plume, anode, cathode, device, propellant.
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File Name: PMFEB94.txt Popular Mechanics, February 1994, p. 38
NEW AGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR
" Electric Cars are cheap. It's all those extension power cords that are expensive."
Electric cars may have had their share of jokes, but no on is laughing at GM's Impact -- the first real-world, practical electric-powered passenger car for the 21st century. While everyone is still waiting for the bit breakthrough in battery technology that promises a more potent, lighter weight and affordable power pack, Impact can deliver the goods -- lively performance, acceptable range and reasonable price -- with technology that exists right now. Time is one luxury car companies don't have -- not if they want to sell cars in California in 1998. That's the year that 2% of most makers' fleets offered for sale in the state must be nonpolluting -- zero emissions! And that means electric.
Electric vehicles are nothing new, GM had lead-acid battery-powered trucks running around as early as 1916. And while the basic physics of electric motors hasn't changed -- spin a rotor inside a stator and a horde of electrons pull in harness -- the motors and their controllers have.
The challenge facing electric-car builders today is to squeeze the most performance from the limited amount of on-board power. While some manufacturers are looking at powering conventional vehicles with exotic battery technology that packs three times the power of conventional lead-acid units, the problem is that those batteries cost more than the total price of the Impact.
GM took a different tack, engineering a totally new super-efficient vehicle and advancing the art of electric propulsion to maximize performance and range. What hey achieved with the Impact is a 2900-pounder 1-seater that delivers brisk performance and a 90-mile highway range, 70 miles on the federal driving cycle. The 1100 pound 312-volt battery pack (26 12 volt batteries, plus one for the accessories) can be recharged via a new-design inductive charging port. Three are no exposed contacts, so no shock hazard. Charging takes 2 to 3 hours from a 220-volt (6.6-kw) source, 8 to 10 hours from a 100-volt (1.5-kw) source or 10 to 15 minutes from a 50-kw source. Acid-saturated matting between the plates eliminates free liquid acid inside the battery case. Battery life is estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 miles with a replacement cost of $1500 to $2000.
Impact is powered by an AC induction motor, which spins at a very high 20,000 rpm. Electric motors produce excellent low-speed torque and an almost-flat torque curve. Impacts hi revs permit single-gear operation with an 11.96:1, 2-step helical-spur gear-reduction final drive, lubricated by an electrically driven oil pump. Shifting to REVERSE just changes the direction of the motor. Regenerative braking, where applying the brakes makes the motor function like a generator, contributes some 20% to the range.
AC induction motors, while very efficient, do require a complex control unit to change DC current to a 3 phase AC. Impact uses six insulated gate bipolar transistors for power-switching units. They are able to handle high-current loads with efficiency and excellent reliability. The original Impact show car used MOSFET transistors to handle the current and required 288 of them. The new system has about 1000 times the reliability of the old.
The motor and its controller both are water-cooled, with waste heat going either to the radiator or heater core. The original Impact show car used an air-cooled motor, which was not as reliable, required more space and was noisier because it needed cooling fans to create a high rate of flow to move a low mass of air.
The total on-board battery power (16.8 kw) equals about the same energy potential contained in 1 1/2 gallons of gasoline. Pushing that kind of reserve to an acceptable range, with speeds governed up to 80 mph, in a package loaded with all the power-sucking window, locks, brakes, steering and mirrors, plus 4-speaker premium sound system with CD, ABS, traction control, cruise control and dual airbags -- took some innovative engineering.
To minimize weight, GM developed a 168 piece alloy space frame, which is 40 lighter than steel. This is the lightest and stiffest vehicle structure developed to date. Superlight magnesium was used for components such as seat frames and the steering-wheel core. Squeeze-cast 14-in. Alloy wheels hold the lightweight title, barely tipping he scale at just 8 pounds.
Rolling resistance was at 15%, compared to current all-season tires, with 50-psi self-sealing Michelin tires. Ride harshness is tuned out via a short/long-arm (SLA) front suspension and a 5-link rear suspension that uses unique fiberglass links mated to aluminum ends.
But the energy's biggest black hole is aero drag, AT 50 mph, a full one third of the watts produced are blown away in the breeze. A wind-cheating teardrop-shape body--the rear track is 9in narrower than the front--and full belly pan cut Cd to an F-16 jet-fighter like 0.19. That's 30% better than any current production car.
Another first is the heat pump for heating and air conditioning. Using a separate AC induction motor and inverter to drive the compressor, R134a refrigerant is pumped to a reversing valve, which controls the flow to either the front heat exchanger that is located ahead of the radiator or the rear heat exchanger that is located in a module underneath the dash on top of the tunnel. The system is able to provide 3000 watts cooling for 1000 watts of electrical input, and in the a/c mode, uses only 1000 to 1500 watts of power compared to 4000 to 5000 watts for conventional systems.
A unique preconditioning mode allows you to program the heating/ventilation/air-conditioning (HVAC) system, like you would a VCR or an alarm clock. While the car is being charged, you can have the heat or a/c come on at a preset time, so you can enter a toasty cabin on cold days and a cool car when outside thermometers are popping.
So what's it like to drive an Impact? Starting the car is a bit eerie, because it doesn't actually start. There's no ignition key. You punch in your special code via the console keypad, and a dash light reads READY. That's it. There's no sound, no vibration, no nothing. The electric motor plays dead until you hit the gas--er, watts.
Performance is unlike any other electric vehicle we've driven. Previous electrics have been downright slugs, but the Impact scoots and handles like a sports car. You can hammer down the road in confidence, and this 2-seater really responds. At one point, at the GM Proving Grounds, we drag raced a 193 Acura Integra up a steep incline test track and arrived at the top out infront by three car lengths.
Impacts will hit the road this spring as GM turns out over 50 of them into the hands of more than 10000 motorists for 2 and 4-week test drives during a 2-year year test-evaluation program. It gives everyone -- including GM a chance to get electric-car experience. As of yet, GM has not decided if it will go to market with Impact in 2- or 4-seat versions, or both. The 2-seater, with an expected price tag of $25,000, may not have sufficient market appeal. But a 4-seater may be practical only if a more advanced (and affordable) battery is developed.
Who knows, the ubiquitous expression of "Fill 'er up" may become as obsolete as "Whoa, Dobbin," as Americans sing a new tune -- "Watts up?"
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File name pmdeca.txt Popular Mechanics December 1994 Page 36
Electric Wheel Drives Itself
Leonardstown, MD -- Town Creek Industries has put a new spin on an old idea. Tuck motors inside wheels, and you've eliminated 600 pounds of transmission, differentials and drivetrain.
In Town Creek's electric wheel, batteries power two pancake motors, one driving a ring gear, the other driving an inner sun gear. Between these gears lie three planetary pinions, which transmit torque to the wheel through a shaft.
At idle the ring gear and sun gear counterrotate so that the pinions don't move. To gain torque, one gear slows down until at high speeds, the gears are running in the same direction. Advantage! Efficiency during both acceleration and cruise.
Detailed and excellent graphics.
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File Name PMOCT93.txt Popular Mechanics, October, 1993 p.32
BIG THREE MAY THROW IN TOGETHER ON ELECTRIC CARS
Detroit, MI - Just as American automakers were bouncing back, along comes a mandate for EVs, or electric vehicles. It's a demand sparked by California's law dictating that in 1998, one in every 20 cars sold must be electric.
Tooling up individually to meet this demand could be another economic bonecrusher for the Big Three. So Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are considering the unprecedented step of producing a single EV or all three to sell. And even if they go their separate ways, The companies could wind up using the same battery, motor, controller, drivetrain, steering gear and air conditioner.
What's driving Detroit to EV collaboration? According to the head of GMs Technical Center, the cost of producing an EV may run seven times as high as the cost of producing a conventional car.
The biggest roadblock is the battery. Lead-acid batteries poop out after a limited range, and the more promising technologies also promise more expense.
But facing he 1998 deadline, the carmakers are plugging away with the most mature battery technologies available. Ford, for example, is preparing a fleet of European Escort vans powered by peppy sodium-sulfur batteries, which date back to the `60s. Since both materials are hazardous, and battery runs hotter than 600degrees F, a crash-proof outter shell is a key research focus.
Ford's electric Escort van, dubbed Ecostar, will roam about 100 miles (graphic).
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File Name: PMJUL94.txt Popular Mechanics July 1994 page 16
POWER ASSIST FOR PEDALERS
Alameda, CA -- When hills drain you of juice, one ZAP Power System can contribute its own. Made by McGreen Development, the system runs off a gel-cell lead acid battery and can supply speeds of up to 20 miles per hour.
Each ZAP consists of one or two pancake-style motor rollers that engage the front wheel. To refresh the battery, the motors convert to generators when the rider coasts downhill or decelerates.
The power system adds between 5 and 8 pounds to a bike's weight, and the battery can tack on another 12 or 24 pounds.
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File Name: PMJULA94.txt Popular Mechanics July, 1994 page 19
SOLAR LAWNMOWER FOR COUCH POTATOES
Shreveport, La -- The sun made it grow, and now the sun cuts it down. An autonomous, solar-powered mower can wander across your lawn, trimming grass tips continuously -- as long as the sun shines.
Marketed by Poulan Weed Eater, the Belgian designed robot operates within a perimeter defined by wires buried beneath the turf. An onboard sensor gauges the need for mowing by measuring the resistance that grass exerts against its rotating triangular blades. Other sensors detect obstacles, puddles and grass too wet to mow. The machine avoids all three. As a safety measure, the mower emits a piercing shriek if you remove it from its perimeter without deactivating its security system.
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File Name: PMJULb94.txt Popular Mechanics July 1994 p. 24
BATTERY'S TURBO CHARGER
Norcross, GA -- Seeking to jump-start the electricar revolution, a new technique can recharge led-acid batteries in less than 20 minutes.
Electric Power Technology inc. (EPTI) showcased its system last February by running an electric Chevy S-10 pickup a record 831 miles in 24 hours.
EPTIs apparatus is a variation on Russian technology that introduces a short discharge pulse during he charging process. The pulse breaks up a layer of charged particles around the battery plates, reducing he battery's resistance. The battery can thus be recharged at higher currents without overheating.
In addition, the technique doesn't promote the large lead-oxide crystals that accumulate as batteries are repeatedly recharged
**********Could this be the way to a superhybrid?*************
File Name PMSept94.txt Popular Mechanics September, 1994 p. 27
Peewee Pump With Power
El Segundo, Ca -- A versatile little device with only five moving parts could serve as a remarkably powerful pump or an engine.
Invented by Eddie Paul of E.P. Industries, the Cylindrical Energy Module consists of four double-ended pistons in a rotating body. These components move within a split shell, the two halves of which meet at a sinusoidal cam track.
As a motor turns the body, pins attached to the pistons travel along the cam track. The pins' sinusoidal path drives the pistons up and down. Meanwhile, the rotation aligns the pistons' cylinder openings with intake and output ports in the end cap.
Alternatively, the device could work in reverse, as a powerplant. The pistons would compress and exhaust a fuel just like in a conventional internal-combustion engine. Their linear motions would translate into rotary movement as the pins are forced to follow the S-curve of the cam track.
Excellent graphic.
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File Name PMNOVA.txt Popular Mechanics November 1994 p.38
School Bus Teaches EV Tech
Burbank, CA--School buses are natural platforms on which to study electric-vehicle technology.. They ply limited routes in the morning and afternoon, with a siesta to recharge their batteries, if necessary. Because they also run much quieter than diesels, kids; chatter should drop in volume, to the relief of drivers.
The CALSTART consortium is nurturing three electric school buses. One retrofitted from an existing vehicle, now carries 66 schoolchildren in Santa Barbara. The bus packs 110 kilowatt-hours of battery capacity and has a 50 mile range. A second has been converted to work Santa Maria-Bonitas. The Specialty Vehicle lManufacturing Corp. Is designing he third from the ground up.
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File Name: PMSEPA94.TXT Popular Mechanics September, 1994 p.112
Automobiles
The Alternate Fuel Report:
Honda Dream Solar Racer
By Mike Allen, Associate Automotive Editor
Iwata-san seemed concerned as he looked at me while his two assistants carefully lowered the bodywork over the naked skeleton of his race car. The look on his face reminded me of a similar situation many years to my past involving a worried father, a high-school cheerleader and a new blue Porsche. Iwata began again the litany of instructions I had heard him give to another journalist, but after only a few words, he sighed, shrugged his shoulders and said, "You know."
It was my every intent to bring his car back intact. I'll let history speak for itself in the case of the high-school girl.
The car that was strapping on is as exotic and finely crafted a vehicle as I've ever been near, much less been allowed to pilot around, even briefly. It certainly is the most expensive.
The Dream was commissioned for one purpose: to win the 1993 World Solar Challenge, 3000 km from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia. Not only was Honda the overall winner--with the Dream speeding to an all-time record of 52.79 mph-- but the existing record, set six years ago by the GM Sunraycer, was bettered by over 21%.
Honda recently gave a select group of journalists an opportunity to briefly drive the Dream at HPCC, its test facility in Mojave, California. HPCC is far out in the desert where the land is cheap, and far from prying eyes.
According to Honda's engineer and team leader T. Iwata, "Honda Dream was designed to go faster than other cars for exact length of race. No longer. So construction is precisely strong enough to go distance. And Dream has already gone this far and more. So remember when you drive, car already worn out. But you will see."
The relationship between this car and any product that Honda might sell to the public is about as close as Honda's Formula One efforts are to a Civic. The carbon-fiber backbone frame is gemlike in its construction details, including such niceties as fairings for the bottom of the wheel wells that rotate with the steering for reduced wind resistance. The front suspension control arms are magnesium fabrications, no thicker than a pencil. Many of the nuts and bolts are aluminum.
Every component of the Dream is optimized o be as light as possible, which was pointed out to me in particularly graphic form as I tried to squeeze my full-size Western-journalist backside into a cockpit intended for 60-kilo Japanese engineers with thighs like pipe cleaners. There's almost nothing to hang onto while lowering oneself into the seat, and l managed to twist the handlebars completely free of the steering column before I realized it. The steering column is aluminum-alloy tubing, and not significantly thicker than a Budweiser can.. Iwata-san declared lunch break and he and his crew had new steering column installed before dessert.
The neodymium-magnet brushless motor nominally runs on 124.5-volt DC, and is rated for 2 horsepower produced continuously, 8hp for short periods. It's mounted in the hub of the single rear wheel to eliminate any losses from a drive chain or belt. Honda claims an amazing 95% efficiency.
Feeding the motor is a bank of 83 1.4 volt silver-zinc batteries, rated for a total of just under 5 kilowatt-hours. Divide that by the motor's 1.5-kw consumption and you get 3 hours of operation, hardly good enough. The real source of power is 4584 monocrystalline silicon solar cells, capable of producing more than 1.5 kw in bright sunlight.
Produced specifically for the Dream by SunPower Corp. In Sunnyvale, California, the race cells produce an average efficiency of 21.2%--SunPower's Dr. Richard Swanson claims the array achieved a world record for efficiency as measured by the DOE's Sandia National Laboratory. Using Point-Contact Photovoltaic technology, the cells have all of their metallic electrodes on the back of the cell to increase efficiency, as well as a mirrored back to trap as much energy as possible. The entire 89.1 -sq ft. Array, laminated by Honda into square-foot-size modules, weighs just under 43 pounds. Honda won't release figures, but estimates for the cost of the cells actually used on the race car--not including cells used for design and development--put the cost of the solar array at well over $1 million. SunPower, essentially an R&D concern before receiving inquiries from Honda, had to set up a production line to produce cells for the Dream project.
Honda also chose to laminate the cells under a textured acrylic sheet, grooved with fine horizontal striations, to increase the ability of the cells to capture low-azimuth morning and afternoon light rays.
Integrated into the cockpit is a computer-controlled cruise control. There are no environmental controls of any sort, making for a very uncomfortable day for the driver in the hot Australian outback. Ducting air through to cool the driver would add parasite drag to the Dream's low-drag shape.
Lowering losses throughout the vehicle was paramount in the priorities of the Honda R&D staff. The tires are specially made low-rolling-resistance bicycle tires with tubes. And in spite of starting out in fresh skins every morning, the team suffered a total of six tire failures in the 180-mile trip. With tire changes taking only 1 to 3 minutes, the delays were more than made up for by the higher speeds permitted by thinner, more fragile tires.
All-up weight of the Honda Dream, sans driver is 413 pounds. And although the construction seems more like a kite to a fellow used to piloting 300-hp stock cars at 150 per, there's no denying he racer's competence in its intended milieu.
The heavily smoked Plexiglas windscreen is rippled by distortion, but the 100-ft.-plus-wide track holds no surprises more dangerous than the occasional desert tortoise, most of which are still sleeping on this cool day. Squeezing the lawnmower-style throttle on the handlebars gives a gentle--very gentle--push in the small of my back, accompanies by a rapidly climbing thumping as the permanent magnetic motor reaches an rpm where it works more efficiently. Speed climbs steadily. The thumping noise smoothes, or at least is overshadowed by road noise intruding into the cockpit. The wheel wells flanking my elbows are covered with an aerodynamic fairing the size of a turkey platter and about as substantial as a sheet of parchment. The fairings provide little noise reduction and as the speed continues to climb they start to rattle and resonate.
I level off at 100kph, or 63 mph, just about at the entrance to turn one. With an arc nearly 2 miles long, it hardly seems like a corner--but the Dream's pushrod steering can be most kindly described as vague. It takes a few mild oscillations to settle in. But within a minute or two, I get the hang of the steering and bump the speed up to 110, constantly aware that Iwata is watching his multimilliondollar car from a chase care only 100 ft. Or so to my rear.
Eight miles and a scant 10 minutes later, I get a chance to try the Dream's brakes, which barely quality as brakes at all. The intent was to use regenerative braking for all but emergencies. Regenerative breaking, which recovers some of the vehicle's energy to recharge batteries, does not provide braking for normal traffic. And frankly, any brake action that locked the wheels would probably scrub through the thin rubber and blow the tire immediately.
Honda claims the Dream's top speed is in excess of 140 kph, on a sunny day with fully charged batteries, but the handling tends to get a little spooky above 110 or so. I elected to bring Mr. Iwata's baby back home in one piece.
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File Name PMSEPB.txt Popular Mechanics November 1994 p. 38
Hybrid Saturn Gets High Marks
College Park, MD -- Not only do Saturns turn heads among car buyers, but a converted Saturn SL2 ran rings around its rivals at last June's Hybrid Electric Vehicle Challenge in Southfield, Michigan.
University of Maryland students stripped the car of its engine and installed a power-assist system. Under the hood, an electric motor and a small internal-combustion engine (lifted from a GeoMetro) both transmit power to the drive axle. The Geo engine, tweaked to run on methanol-gasoline, drives the car most of the time, while the electric motor kicks in for peak acceleration. If the motor's batteries run down, the motor can turn into a generator, powered by the Geo engine, to recharge them.
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Filename PMFEB92.txt Popular Mechanics, Feb. 1992 p 13
Lawrence, KS - Fish have known it for 400 million years: The easiest way to slice through water is to flap a tail. Now man is catching up. Seeking efficiency and stealth for marine craft, engineers are looking seriously at fishtail propulsion.
At the University of Kansas, Ronald Barrett has already demonstrated a 9-in. Proof-of-concept vehicle. Wiggling at a frequency of 22 swipes per second, a submerged tail drives the little model at 0.6 knots. The motion comes from piezoelectric ceramic strips, which expand and contract in response to an alternating current. Lined up at 45 degree angles along he tail's sides, the strips can be triggered independently to control pitch yaw and roll.
Barrett sees two major applications for what he calls solid-state aquatic vehicles. Navies could exploit noiseless propulsion and fishlike behavior to have small underwater robots sneak up on hostile ships. Surface vessels could take advantage of the drag-reducing eddies touched off by the oscillating tail, for a big boost in the efficiency over conventional screws. Scaled up, a 100-ft. Tail could push a ship at 30 knots.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Institute of Technology engineer Michael Triantafyllou is already designing a 5-ft. Robot sub with a ail that is driven by hydraulically activated pulleys.
Twin piezoelectric fishtails, oscillating
out of phase to minimize yaw, could
drive future tanker.
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Item Subject: AFVN(biodiesel,Etaxi,Eshuttle,Thrifty Rental Car CNGbus,6/20 10am) [The Internet Alternative Energy (AE) List and The Internet Electric Vehicle (EV) List Newz. For Public EV & AE informational purposes.] --- BOSTON -- Take a ride in New England's first electric taxi, or ride on an electric shuttle bus, the Airport Water Shuttle powered by a new clean-fuel -- biodiesel -- or the newest airport shuttle bus operated by Thrifty Rental Car and powered by compressed natural gas, CNG. An alliance among public agencies and private companies, the Clean Air Partners -- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Massport, The NEES Companies, and Boston Edison Company, are launching an armada of clean fuel vehicles at Logan International Airport and unveiling a new clean air public service program. A single diesel bus adds more than 1,000 pounds of pollutants to the air we breathe each year. Clean fuel vehicles help reduce pollutants and clean the air. WHO: John DeVillara, Regional Administrator for EPA's New England Office Carl Gustin, Vice President of Boston Edison James Kerasiotes, Secretary of the Mass. Executive Office of Transportation and Construction Jim Marcotte, Thrifty Rental Car Stephen Tocco, Massport Executive Director Jeff Tranen, President of New England Power DATE: June 20, 1996 TIME: 10:00 a.m. PLACE: Pavilion at the Harborside Hyatt Hotel at Logan Airport Rain Location: Logan Office Center Atrium. Call for Directions. ATTENTION: Members of the media are invited to ride the airport water shuttle to the news conference site at Logan Airport. The boat will leave promptly at 9:45. Please call to confirm your attendance on the boat. The water shuttle offers spectacular views of Boston and no longer the smell of diesel exhaust. PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES: 9:45 a.m. -- Water shuttle departs Rowes Wharf for Logan Airport 10:00 a.m. -- News conference and Unveiling of public education campaign 10:45 a.m. -- Vehicle demonstration and rides from Harborside Hyatt Hotel CONTACT: Alice Kaufman of EPA New England Press Office, 617-565-4592, or Barbara Platt of Massport, 617-561-1818. CO: New England Electric System; Boston Edison Company ST: Massachusetts IN: ENV SU: 06/19/96 15:04 EDT --- {Statements may not be my Employer's} ____ (BruceDP@aol.com) Bruce Parmenter EV List Newz Editor ~/__|o\__ Sunnyvale,CA,USA Fax: 408-746-5368 '@----- @'---(= Get Amp'd 'Electric cruis'n the Santa Clara Valley' hood ^ solar panels http://members.aol.com/brucedp/ AFVN(biodiesel,Etaxi,Eshuttle,Thrifty Rental Car CNGbus,6/20