Technological analysis and fuel consumption saving potential of different gas turbine thermodynamic configurations for series hybrid electric vehicles

Gas turbine systems are among potential energy converters to substitute the internal combustion engine as auxiliary power unit in future series hybrid electric vehicle powertrains. Fuel consumption of these auxiliary power units in the series hybrid electric vehicle strongly relies on the energy converter efficiency and power-to-weight ratio as well as on the energy management strategy deployed on-board. This paper presents a technological analysis and investigates the potential of fuel consumption savings of a series hybrid electric vehicle using different gas turbine-system thermodynamic configurations. These include a simple gas turbine, a regenerative gas turbine, an intercooler regenerative gas turbine, and an intercooler regenerative reheat gas turbine. An energetic and technological analysis is conducted to identify the systems' efficiency and power-to-weight ratio for different operating temperatures. A series hybrid electric vehicle model is developed and the different gas turbine-system configurations are integrated as auxiliary power units. A bi-level optimization method is proposed to optimize the powertrain. It consists of coupling the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm to the dynamic programming to minimize the fuel consumption and the number of switching ON/OFF of the auxiliary power unit, which impacts its durability. Fuel consumption simulations are performed on the worldwide-harmonized light vehicles test cycle while considering the electric and thermal comfort vehicle energetic needs. Results show that the intercooler regenerative reheat gas turbine-auxiliary power unit presents an improved fuel consumption compared with the other investigated gas turbine systems and a good potential for implementation in series hybrid electric vehicles.