Optimization Study on Expansion Energy Used Air-Powered Vehicle with Pneumatic-Hydraulic Transmission

Pneumatic-hydraulic transmission has been developed for years. However, its dynamic properties are not good enough for application. In this paper, in order to increase the output characteristics, a late-model air-powered vehicle using expansion energy is proposed which can boost energy through a pneumatic-hydraulic transmission. The dynamic characteristics of the air-powered vehicle is modeled and verified by conducting experiment. In addition, the influence of the key parameters of the air-powered vehicle is researched for the optimization of the system performance. Through the results, the author got the conclusion that, firstly, comparison of the results of model and experiment proves the built model to be effective; secondly, input air pressure should be set according to the request of the practical loads, and range of 0.65 to 0.75 MPa can be chosen; thirdly, as a key structure parameter of the air-powered vehicle, ratio of the areas is considered to be set to approximate 8; what’s more, a bigger orifice with a limit will promote the system dynamic characteristic property, and the limit is about 3.5 mm; last but not the least, not too farther position of the rings will increase the quality of output dynamic characteristics. This paper can be a reference for system design of air-powered vehicle and dynamic improvement.