Submitted: Eleventh South African Conference on computational and Applied Mechanics, September 2018.
The MISER® hydraulic-hybrid technology is an innovative approach to kinetic energy recovery, storage and reapplication for any form of vehicle. This technology makes use of a hydraulic system to reduce the fuel consumption of the vehicle. This is achieved with a combination of regenerative braking, hydraulics and using gas compression to provide an almost loss-free medium for fast storing and fast release of energy. The system uses a hydraulic pump/motor (P/M) and nitrogen-filled accumulators to store the excess and unwanted kinetic energy and reuse the stored energy at the latter stage. The hydraulic pump/motor (P/M) is a critical component in the system and very little is known of its performance characteristics. This study provides clarity on the development of the system model and the performance of the hydraulic system P/M.