Power characteristics of a new kind of air‐powered vehicle

Nowadays, hydropneumatic transformer (short for HP transformer) is widely used as the main part of the power system of air‐powered vehicles to pump pressurized hydraulic oil from compressed air with a lower pressure. In this paper, the power system of a new kind of air‐powered vehicle is built using HP transformer as the pneumatic pressure boosting structure and hydraulic motor as the power unit. To set a foundation for the optimization of the power system, the dynamic characteristics are analyzed by building the mathematic model and setting up the experimental station. What is more, the affection of several key structure parameters is researched. Through experimental and simulation study, it can be concluded that, firstly, the mathematical model is proved to be effective; secondly, increasing the area ratio of the pistons would improve the output power as well as reduce the system efficiency, and we choose 6 for a balanced choice; thirdly, the output power and the system efficiency will rise with a larger oil discharge orifice; lastly, the increasing pressure of the input air will raise the power and meanwhile decrease the efficiency. In this system, the efficiency will remain above 30%. This research can be referred to in the design of the power system of air‐powered vehicle and the study on the optimization of the dynamic characteristics. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.