GB2524941A

GB2524941A - Zero aerodynamic drag vehicles

Info

Publication number: GB2524941A
Application number: GB1402386.5A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Othman Bin Ahmad
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2014-02-12
Filing date: 2014-02-12
Publication date: 2015-10-14
Anticipated expiration: 2034-02-12
Also published as: GB201402386D0; GB2524941B

Abstract

A vehicle 1 has upper 2 and lower 3 adjustable air intake nozzles, a viewing port 4 and an air intake 5. Intake air passes through, a plurality of: compressors 10, burners 11, turbo chargers 12, compression pipes 13, compression pipe shafts 14, hot gas pipes 15 and hot gas shafts 16.. Exhaust gases exit through a nozzle 6 adjacent to vectored thrust vanes 7. The inlet and exhaust nozzles may be equipped with overlapping fixed nozzle sidewalls 8 and movable nozzle sidewalls 9 allowing the size and shape of the nozzles to be altered. The rotational energy of shafts 14 and 16 may be used to drive a plurality of wheels [Fig 2, 23], In further e embodiments the motive power sources may be a plurality of electric motors [Fig 6, 51] or an internal combustion engine [Fig 3, 30]. In all embodiments the vehicle lowers the air pressure at the front of the vehicle and minimises frontal drag by optimising air inlet to the power source. Exhaust gases are exited along the centreline of the rear of the vehicle to compensate for the vacuum caused by aerodynamic drag.

Description

Intellectual Property Office Application No. GB1402386.5 RTN4 Date:5 August 20t5 The following terms are registered trade marks and should be read as such wherever they occur in this document:

TOYOTA

PRIUS

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office www.gov.uk/ipo

ZERO AERODYNAMIC DRAG VEHICLES

1. FIELD OF THE II'WENTION

The present invention relates to a vehicle design to reduce loss due to air drag.

2. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

It is widely understood that when vehicles move, they induce aerodynamic drag. This drag causcs a loss in power in moving the vehicle. This power loss can be higher than 50% of the total propulsive power at high speeds. This drag can be viewed as being caused by high pressure region in Iront of the vehicle which creates lorce to push the vehide against the forward lorce created by the propu'sion of the vehicle and a vacuum at the hack of the vehicle that pulls the vehicle backward.

With such huge energy losses, current arts solve the problem by designing vehicles with aerodynamic shapes. Sport ears need to be small because they are designed to travel fast.

To the extreme are rocket shaped land speed record breakers. For medium speed, tear drop shapes can be used but not successful commercially. A.L.F.A., which later became Alfa-Romeo, patented air-resisting train' in an 1865 patent. It formed the basis for the 1914 A.L.F.A. 40/6OHP Aerodinamica Prototype, created for Count Marco Ricotti by the Castagna Coachbuilding firm as reported by a Daily Mail reporter on the 19th of April 2012. in an online publication called Mail Online. That prototype uses a tear drop design.

Another prior art technique is by using turbo or super chargers to boost the air intake into internal combustion engines so that more power can be created by similar sized engines.

The pressure due to drag is insufficient especially at low speed to provide such additional power and therefore air scoops need to be provided by air blowers blowing air into the internal combustion engine.

Yet another prior art technique is by using spoilers or ground effect skirts to increase the downward force for vehicles in order to improve handling during turning. It does not improve the energy efficiency of the vehicle.

Air scoops are used by prior arts to utilise the aerodynamic drag to cool engine and air conditioning radiators.

The inventor had disdosed some ideas on using aerodynamic drag for other purposes hut it was not fully disclosed in the electronic journal. EJUM, Engineering c-Transaction, Volume 6, No 2, 2011.

U.S.A. patent no US 7,165,804 B2, 2007, issued to Khosrow Shahhazi, shows a technique that uses the high pressure region in front of the vehicle and the low pressure region at the back of the vehicle to reduce aerodynamic drag, simply by connecting the high pressure region to the lower pressure region.

3. TECHNICAL PROBLEM The prior art solves the aerodynamic drag problem by designing gently sloping shapes to minimise drag. However, the aerodynamic shapes make the vehicles smaller in cross sectional area but very long. These aerodynamic shapes are not ideal for carrying human passengers or travelling on roads. Passengers find it awkward to move into sports cars which are too small because of their need for aerodynamic shapes. We also do not see any rocket shaped vehides on roads because they will he awkward to manoeuvre on roads because they have to be long but thin so passengers cannot sit side by side. Even tear drop shapes are not successful commercially.

Other uses of aerodynamic drag to increase downward force are only useful when braking and turning. Air scoops also use only a little of the total air drag which is wasted for cooling purposes. The cooling radiator should be placed at the low pressure region of the vehicle to contnbute to reducing aerodynamic drag by expanding the air that is used to cool the radiators. Connecting high pressure region to low pressure region can only reduce hut not eliminate aerodynamic drag.

4. TECHNICAL SOLUTION The solution is therefore not to reduce aerodynamic drag too much that c*go space is compromised. We must live with some aerodynamic drag which causes some power loss.

The present invention uses the power loss due to aerodynamic drag to increase the efficiency of thermal engines instead of just to increase downward force. The aerodynamic vacuum effect can he fully utilised to increase the power of a thermal engine especially at high speed.

The higher (he speed ol (lie vehicle, the larger the aerodynamic drag losses and therefore the larger is the force due to vacuum effects. To minimise losses, this vacuum must be filled with extra gas. Instead of using the surrounding air to fill in the vacimm by tapering the vehicle body, we can leave the body as it is but fill it with gas from the exhaust of the thermal engine and air that is heated by the cooling radiators from both engine awl air conditioning. The engines can he electric motors, jet engines and internal comhustion engines.

Thc cxhaust of the jet engine or internal combustion engine should he diverted to the central region at the back of the vehicle, where the vacuum effect is strongest. Pnor arts place these exhausts at the sides of the vehicles in order to maximise space.

The high pressure region can be used to feed air into die therma' or other types of engines that can suck the air from the high pressure frontal area of the vehicle. If the sucking power of the engines is not sufficient, there will be more aerodynamic drag. Variable size intake and exhaust nozzles are required to reduce the aerodynamic drag in circumstances where the sucking power of the engines is not sufficient, by using a gently sloping surface.

To reduce drag due to skin effect, the frontal area of the nozzles can be increased to envdope the whole body with vacuum created behind the nozzles, at the travelling speed.

5. ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS The vacuum created by aerodynamic drag can suck the pistons of the internal combustion engines together with the burnt gases at the exhaust outjet. Another way of looking at. it is to see the exhaust and cooling air fill the vacuum created by the aerodynamic drag, and thus reducing the aerodynamic drag.

The high pressure air at the intake nozzle pushes the pistons or rotors, increasing the power of the engines. The power lost due to aerodynamic drag is transferred to the engines and there is no limit to how much power can be transferred to the engine, unlike the cooling, ground and other effects of air. Some costs are required to divert the exhaust gas outlets to the hack ol the vehicle hut a person skilled iii (he art should he able to minimise the cost compared to (lie alternative of reducing the vacuum effect by using gently sloping body shapes.

6. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is best described by using the following: Fig. 1 showing the embodiment as a turbo jet flying vehicle, Fig. 2 showing an embodiment using turbo prop with wheels.

Fig. 3 showing an embodiment using an internal combustion engine, Fig. 4 showing an example where all nozzles are closed to reduce aerodynamic drag.

Fig. 5 showing an embodiment that reduces the aerodynamic drag of a standard car and Fig. 6 showing an embodiment for a vehicle that is powered by an electric motor.

7. BEST MODE The configuration of the present invention will be apparent from the description of embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in Fig. Ia the front view and Fig. lb. the side view, the best embodiment of the present invention is a vehicle (I) which includes an adjustable upper air intake nozzle (2), a lower intake nozzk (3), a transparent viewing port (4) which should occupy most of the surface area of the upper air intake nozzle (2) so that visibility is not affected as the nozzle is adjusted. air intake (5), exhaust nozzle (6), vectored thrust vanes (7), air compressor (10), burner (11), turbo charger (12), compression pipe (13), compression pipe shaft (14), hot gas pipe (15), hot gas shaft (16), exhaust pipe (17), exhaust outlet (18) and intake pipc (19). Fig. lc shows the top view of the adjustable air intake nozzle showing the fixed nozzle sidewall (8) and the moveable upper moveable nozzle sidewall (9). There should he a similar movcable lower nozzle sidewall underneath the upper moveable nozzle sidewall (9). This embodiment is for a wingless flying machine for extremely high speed of more than 300 km/hr.

S

The air compressor (10), burner (II), wrho charger (12), compression pipe (13), compression pipe shaft (14). hot gas pipe (15). hot gas shaft (16) forms a standard turbo jet or turbo fan engine.

The air compressor (10) sucks air through the air intake (5). via the air intake nozzles (2)(3) and intake pipe (19) at a rate such that the excess air as the vehicle (1) moves forward is all sucked into the compression pipe (13) at such a rate that there is no high dynamic pressure in front of the vehicle (1). The compressed air is used to burn carefully adjusted amount of fuel in the burner (11) so that the volume of the gas is increased further by the increase in temperature and sent to the hot gas pipe (15). The heated gas then exits to the outside via the exhaust pipe (17). exhaust outlet (18) and exhaust nozzle (6) through the turbo charger (12). Sonic of the gas energy is captured by the turbine blades of the turbo charger (12) which turns the hot gas shaft (16) which is directly connected to the compression pipe shaft (14) to turn the turbine blades of the air compressor (10). The rate at which the exhaust gas exits the exhaust nozzle (6) must be high enough o offset the low dynamic pressure at the hack as the vehicle (I) moves forward.

The size of the opening of nozzles (2), (3) and (6) must be large enough that its opening surface area with respect to the direction of travel, covers all the frontal surface area of the vehicle (1). In this way, all the aerodynamic drag energy will be captured by the vehicle (1). When the nozzles arc fully open. the vehicle (1) presents a cigar shaped vehicle that has a coefficient of drag of around 0.82. This coefficient can be reduced further by further increasing the surface area covered by the nozzles (2)(3)(6) so that. the vacuum behind the nozzle can cover all the skin of the body of the vehicle (1).

The air intake nozzles (2)3) are sizeable by sliding the sidewalls (8)9) and by using hinges strategically located. When the nozzles (2)(3) are closed, the aerodynamic drag of this gently sthping shape is much less than 0.82. This lower aerodynamic drag configuration is useful when the dynamic pressures in front and at the back of the vehicle (1) cannot be economically utilised by the thermal engine through the adjustment of fuel intake.

The moveable nozzle is optional because the present invention uses the aerodynamic drag energy to increase the efficiency of the thermal engine. Any excess dynamic pressure in front is used by the thermal engine to compress the air, and the low dynamic pressure at the hack helps to suck the exhaust air out, reducing the amount of fuel burned by the burner (11).

To preserve the low aerodynamic drag. this vehicle is win&ess hut is controlled by vectored thrusts using the vectored thrust vanes (7) placed at the exhaust nozz'e. When the air intake nozzles (2)(3) are fully open and the dynamic pressures in front and at the back are zero, there is no aerodynamic drag except the skin effects as air moves against the surfaces of the vehicle (1), and the slight angle of attack attitude which is necessary in order to provide lift.

An alternative embodiment is to use conventional wings, rudder, tail and ailerons just like conventional jet aeroplanes. This allows the exhaust nozzles (6) to be closed, thus allowing some reduction in the aerodynamic drag coefficient of the vehicle (1) if required.

8. MODE FOR INVENTION Fig. 2 shows an embodiment with a transmission (20) to tap the rotational power of the turbo jet engine to be transferred to the differential gear (22) via the drive shaft (21) to the wheels (23) in a standard turbo prop configuration. This embodiment is suitable for a high speed land vehicle of speeds greater than 100 kmfhr.

Fig. 3 shows an cmbodiment using an internal combustion engine (30) wherc its intake pipe (19) is connected to the air intake nozzles (2)(3) and the exhaust pipe (17) connected to the exhaust nozzles (6). The internal combustion engine drives the wheds (23) through the differential gear (22) and drive shaft (21). This einbodinient is suitable for medium to low speed lorries and trains of speeds less than 100 kmlhr.

Fig. 4 shows an example where the nozzlcs (2)(3) and (6) are closed in order to reduce aerodynamic drag. An alternate viewing port 24) should appear because the alternate viewing port (24) is attached to the upper side of the intake nozzle (2). Similar sets of viewing ports may be optionally installed for the exhaust nozzles (6). The mechanism for closing the exhaust nozzles (6) is similar to the closing of the air intake nozzles (2)(3) and is shown by Fig. le.

Fig. 5 shows an embodiment in a standard compact ear (40) with an outline that is similar to Toyota Prius C. Prius C is less aerodynamic than the Prius partly because it is shorter.

Therefore, there should be more aerodynamic drag power that can be diverted to the thermal engine. The air at the place with high dynamic pressure which is the flat and vertical portion of the front most part of the compact car (40) is captured by the air collector (41) to he sent to the internal combustion engine (30) via the intake pipe (19).

The burnt gases is sent out via the exhaust pipe (17) to the exhaust diffuser @2) placed at the lowest dynamic pressure region of the car, which is commonly at the flat and vertical region at the furthest hack of the compact ear (40). A large air filter may he fitted inside the air collector (41) and a catalytic converter may be fitted inside the exhaust diffuser (42). It is vital that the exhaust pipe (17) and exhaust diffuser (42) are air tight and heat insulated in order to prevent the loss of hot high pressure exhaust gas as well as the drop in temperature. The air collector (41) and intake pipe (19) nccd also be air tight but preferably cooled by fitting fins (43) on the outer skin of the intake pipe (19) and air collector (41). The exhaust diffuser (42) may he attached to the rear door of a standard compact car (40) so a mechanism to easily attach and detach the exhaust dilluser (42) from the exhaust pipe may need to be provided.

Fig. 6 shows an embodiment where the thermal engine components, the air compressor (10), burner (11) arc replaced by an electric motor/generator (51) which is connected to the turbo charger (12) via a transmission (20) and motor shalt (52). The aerodynamic drag power, represented by air moving through pipes (13)(15)(17), is tapped by (he turbo charger (12) to be fed to the electric motor/generator (51). The motor/generator (51) drives the wheels (23) via a drive shaft (21) and differential gear (22).

The transmission (20) can be set to neutral or its clutch disengaged. thus disconnecting the electric motor/generator (51) from the turbo charger (12). The high dynamic pressure from the front nozzles (2)) is thus directly connected to the low dynamic pressure at the rear nozzles 6), allowing the acrodynamic drag powcr which arc causcd by thc occurrcncc of these dynamic pressure differences, to be captured by the mrbo charger (12).

The motor/generator (51) can be set into a generator or motor modes. In the motor mode.

the turbo charger (12) will increase the effective mechanical power of the motor/generator (51) thus increasing mechanical power transferred to the wheels (23). In the generator mode, the turbo charger (12) will increase the effective electrical output power of the motor/generator (51) reducing the load on the internal combustion engine that may be used for charging in a hybrid configuration. These different combinations of power conversions should be optimised to the desired performance criteria.

Fig. 7 shows an embodiment in environments where therma' engine and wheels are not suitable such as underwater. It is similar to the embodiment as explained in Fig. 6. except that the components used to drive the wheels; drive shaft (21), differential gear (22) and wheels (23) are removed.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, also shown in the appended figures, it will be apparent for those skilled in the art that many variations and modifications can be done within the scope of the invention as described in the specification and defined in the following claims.

Description of the reference numerals used in the accompanying drawings according to the present invention: Ref erence

Descriptioii

Numerals 1 zero aerodynamic drag vehicle 2 upper air intake nozzle 3 lower intake nozzle 4 transparent viewing port air intake 6 exhaust nozzle 7 vectored thrust. vanes 8 fixed nozzle sidewall 9 moveahle nozzle sidewall air compressor 11 burner 12 turbo charger 13 compression pipe 14 compression pipe shaft hot gas pipe 16 hot gas shaft 17 exhaust pipe 18 exhaust outlet 19 intake pipe transmission 21 drive shaft 22 differential gear 23 wheel 24 alternate viewing port internal combustion engine standard compact car 41 air collector 42 exhaust diffuser 43 fins 51 electric motor/generator 52 motor shaft

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS: 1. A vehicle for transporting passengers and or goods. comprising: -a plurality of air intake nozzles (2)(3).-a plurality of exhaust nozzles (6), -a plurality of air intakes (5), -a plurality of exhaust outlets (18), -apluralityofintakepipes (19), -a plurality of compression pipes (13), -a plurality of hot gas pipes (15), -a plurality of exhaust pipes (17), -a plurality of air compressors (10), -a plurality of burners (11), -a plurality of turho chargers (12), -a plurality of compression pipe shafts (14).-a plurality of hot gas shafts (16) and -a plurality of viewing ports (4)(24).
2. The vehicle as of claim 1. in which a plurality of said nozzles (2)(3)(6) may have mechanisms such as overlapping fixed nozzle sidewalls (8) and moveable nozzle sidewalls (9) which allow the sizes and shapes of the nozzles to he changed so as to reduce the aerodynamic drag coefficient of the said vehicle.
3. The vehicle of claim 2. in which the said air compressor (10) and said turbo charger (12) use turbines and the propulsion is driven by the expulsion of the hot exhaust gases as in turbo jets or turbo fans.
4. The vehicle of claim 3, in which the rotational energy of the said shafts (14)(16) are transferred to wheels (23) using a plurality of transmissions (20), a plurality of differential gears (22) and a plurality of drive shafts (21).
5. The vehicle of claim 2, in which a plurality of said air compressors (10) use pistons and a plurality of pipes (19)(13)( l5)( 17), shafts (14)(16), burners (11) and optionally turbo chargers (12). are configured as internal combustion engines (30).
6. The vehicle of claim 1, in which a plurality of said air intake nozzles (2)(3) are configured as air collectors (41) placed at locations at the said vehicles (1) (40) with the highest dynamic pressure and a plurality of said exhaust nottles (6) as exhaust diffusers (42) placed at locations with the lowest dynamic pressure.
7. The vehicle of claim 2, in which the said air compressor (TO) and said burner (II) are replaced by a plurality of electric motor/generators (51) which are connected to a plurality of connections of turbo chargers (12), transmissions (20). motor shafts (52) and to a plurality of wheds (23) using a plurality of connections of differential gears (122) and drive shafts (21).
8. The vehicle of claim 7, in which the said drive shaft (21), said differential gear (22) and said wheel (23) are not required because the said vehide (1) operates in environments where the said thermal cughics and said wheels arc not useable, such as but not limited to underwater.
9. A method of designing vehicles comprising steps of: -providing a p'urality of intake nozzles (2)(3) of such sizes that they are arge enough to cover the full frontal surface area of the vehicle (1); and -providing a plurality of exhaust nozzles (6) of such sizes that they are large enough to cover the full frontal surface area of the vehide (1); and -providing a plurality of fixed nozzle sidewalls (8) and movcablc nozzle sidewalls (9) for the nozzles in front (2)(3) as well as the rear nozzles (6) such that they can shde against each other so that the sizes of die nozzles can he changed: and -providing a plurality of viewing ports (4) (24) which allow good visibility to any driver even when the upper intake nozzle (2) is moved; and -providing a path for the air intake (5) to go to the exhaust outlet (18) through various types of thermal engines such as turbo jets, turbo fan jets, turbo props and internal combustion engines which may comprise of air compressors (10), burners (II), turbo chargers (12). pipes (19)(13)(l5)(17) and shafts (14)(16) so that the aerodynamic drag power can be harnessed by the thermal engines; and -providing a path for the air intake (5) to go directly to the exhaust outlet (18) in the absence ol any thermal engine; and -providing a path for the air intake (5) to go to the exhaust outlet (18) through a turbo charger (12) where the aerodynamic drag power can he harnessed to he transferred to a p'urality of electric motor/gencrators (51) using a pthrality of transmissions O) and motor shafts (52); and -providing a plurality of air collectors (41) instead of air intake nozzles (2)(3) for typical aerodynamically designed cars such as a compact car (40) at the place with high dynamic pressure which is the flat and vertical front most portion of the compact car (40); and -providing a plurality of exhaust diffusers @2) instead of exhaust nozzles (6) for typical aerodynamically designed cars such as a compact car (40) at the place with low dynamic pressure which is the flat and vertical portion at the hack most part of the compact car (40).