Quote:
Originally Posted by trularin
Air powered transportation has been around since the mid 70s.
Remember when we all stood in line to get gas in 1975? Well, there were a few places where the price of gas went through the roof. So, to combat this the air powered bus was developed and has been in service for many years.
This will be the bane of gas companies. There will no longer be any need for gasoline and...if you can generate the power to run the compressor for the air storage tanks from solar or wind, you are set with just maintenance.
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Couldn't find an air bus but this guy is thinking of building one:
(
Idaho Mountain Express: Can air power a bus? - June 30, 2006 )
I can see the windmills now, squeaking and groaning, hooked to those little bicycle tire pumps with the "T" handle...
Perhaps some scrawny chickens running around under the windmill...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Wicked
I am curious to the 1000 mile claim. That is pretty substantial in my opinion. I could see having a solar powered compressor onboard and having some type of alternator that is spun by the engine as well. I am assuming that the engine is only spun while moving, so I also wonder about how much battery power is available to power the rest of the systems. Especially at night. I would consider something like this for a daily.
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Joe,
I don't know much about 1000 miles either. That would take a lot of air. Seems like the car would probably have to be allowed to zig-zag all over and be pretty flat when it stopped.
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In reality, I don't see this air-car thing as being very practical. The most inefficient way to transfer energy to mechanical mode is by pneumatic, followed by hydraulic and finally electric. The most efficient would be a flywheel or wind-up spring, which are mechanical to start with. I believe there are flywheel buses and a flywheel race car (
Chrysler's Electric Race Car Has Turbine and Flywheel - New York Times).
There might be a way to combine systems using air-motor tech though. Perhaps by releasing compressed air into a standard piston/cylinder and injecting/igniting fuel to superheat the mix causing huge expansion.
In a way our EMD based locomotives do this since they run as a 2-stroke diesel engine. I believe the design was originally a marine engine and the 2-stroke system is also used in trucks (Detroit Diesel).
The early compressers were positive roots type blowers (love that whine) but the more modern are turbo's that are mechanically driven (one way bendix clutch) at low speeds so as to produce boost (Vortec-like) but revert to exhaust over-driven turbo's when sufficient exhaust is produced. The best of both.
The reason for the mechanical boost is that they would not run without forced air intake as there is no intake "suction". The engines have one normal exhaust valve but accept intake boost every stroke through a port cut into the lower part of the cylinder at the same time the top exhaust valve is open. In a way they work like a 2-stroke dirt-bike or outboard except the crankcase is never pressured. All the fresh air is force introduced through a water-jacket-like cast-in manifold path when the intake port is still open during the short time, at BDC, before the intake port closes and compression begans to occur. The intake pressure forces the exhaust out the top while the piston is at the bottom. Each cylinder fires each time the piston goes over top-dead-center, thus the 2-stroke designation.
If you can follow the above paragraph, it stands to reason that pre-compressed air could possibly be used in lieu of a turbo for a similar engine. The combustion heat would theoretically enhance the expansion pressure. If it even worked, it would have to have a very slow impeded air-motor cycle to keep from quickly using all the air. Our locomotives idle at 200 rpm and full power at 900. This would have to be a lot less, maybe 10 rpm full power. The closest thing is a diesel powered pile driver.
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