creator Sun, Yingguang advisor Krishnamurthy, Mahesh With growing emphasis on energy independence and environmental issues, alternative energy vehicles, especially Electric Vehicles (EV), Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) have received significant attention. Though these solutions can have significant an impact on the environment, economy and efficiency, some challenges still exist in the widespread acceptance of EVs and HEVs. Some issues include low power density of the battery and low battery durability caused by frequent charging and discharging. This can be especially significant for city use owing to typical drive cycles. In order to address this problem, this work proposes a novel electric-hydraulic hybrid (EH2) drivetrain for PHEVs, HEVs and EVs. An EH2 drivetrain is comprised of an electric traction motor and a hydraulic system that uses a combination of hydraulic pump, motor and accumulator. All the components and their operation theory are introduced in this work. In the proposed system, a hydraulic accumulator is used for energy storage during the regenerative braking process. The energy stored in the accumulator will be released to the hydraulic motor during the power assistance process [1]. In this drivetrain, two 6 HP axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) brushless machines are selected as the traction motor and hydraulic drive. This kind of motor is very suitable for electric vehicles, pump, valve control, fans, etc. due to its pancake shape, compact structure and high torque density [2]. To validate the proposed design, the mathematical model of the hydraulic energy storage system is built in Matlab/Simulink environment and the simulation results are given both for the regenerative braking process and power assistance process. The xiv models of the axial flux permanent magnet brushless machines and its drive system are also built in the Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results are compared with the experimental testing results from the motor test bed built in the lab. Preliminary simulation and experimental results show in the regenerative braking process, 5332 J energy is stored in the accumulator and the energy conversion efficiency is 64.39%. In power assistance process, all the energy stored in the accumulator is released and the vehicle accelerates from 0 m/s to 5.2 m/s. The energy conversion efficiency is 50.71%. These results prove that the hydraulic energy storage system can be used in power assistance and energy storage. The charging and discharging time is very short compared with other energy storage systems. More importantly, the stored energy can reduce the number of times the battery is charged and discharged. In this way the battery size can be reduced and the battery life can be extended. The parallel hydraulic-electric configuration is proved to be a promising solution towards energy storage and power assistance for electric vehicles. Finally, the electric and hydraulic components have been implemented on a go-kart setup built in the lab for future complete drivetrain testing. From the conducted research, it can be concluded that successful implementation of this concept can lead to a wider acceptance of electric vehicles. Submitted by Liana Khananashvili (khananashvili@iit.edu) on 2013-11-18T21:57:48Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Graduation Thesis_Yingguang Sun.pdf: 2231122 bytes, checksum: 9565c637176689a378295fe109c64821 (MD5) Signed title page.pdf: 231862 bytes, checksum: a3c6470ac22dc36feff68399d26bc663 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-11-18T21:57:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Graduation Thesis_Yingguang Sun.pdf: 2231122 bytes, checksum: 9565c637176689a378295fe109c64821 (MD5) Signed title page.pdf: 231862 bytes, checksum: a3c6470ac22dc36feff68399d26bc663 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07 M.S. in Electrical Engineering, July 2013 2013 2013-07 http://hdl.handle.net/10560/3156 en Thesis born digital application/pdf In Copyright http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/ Restricted Access ECE / Electrical and Computer Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology Affiliated department