FRICTIONAL LOSSES AND EFFICIENCY EVALUATION OF A PNEUMATICALLY DRIVEN TWO-WHEELER

Energy storing in compressed air form is taken up on per bar per cubic meter basis. Using this unit it is possible to assess the pneumatic ram's capacity to act as a prime mover of a vehicle, a lightweight two wheeler in our case. The path of transmission of forces will be having friction at many places. It depends on local relative velocity of contact surfaces and the forces against which they rub each other. The total losses will be the total frictional energy lost on the way from ram to road. In this work the frictional path diagram, used formulae, velocity dependence etc., are all taken into account. Lubrication aspects are deliberately dropped as any way they are going to be not the conventional lubricants used in engines where viscosity changes will play high role due to rise in temperature. Useful plots for understanding the comparative behaviour with petrol and Diesel engine are given. Other losses due to thermal cross flows with ambience temperatures generated gradients and leakages also play their role to account for total energy losses. These losses are not taken up in this work. Vehicles of multi cylinders can be also handled for friction loss calculations in a similar way. Authors experience at the need and deployment of a pressure booster for easy start and improved control of speed of the vehicle are also mentioned. A few frames of photos of the two-wheeler under fabrication are shared. On the whole, with nearly same losses of energy pneumatic drive of vehicles appears promising. Areas like high pressure technology, No leak assurance or minimising leaks, highly selection sensitive lubricant usage will all make a hopeful future for Pneumatic ram driven vehicles from our preliminary study.