One of my PhD students got another citation today to one of the journal publications which supported his thesis. This got me thinking about the research background of Simon’s project and how it developed from an EPSRC project on which I was PI. The paper is available to view or download from the PDF screen below

The research programme started with the EPSRC funded FPEC Free Piston Energy Converter project which I led from Sheffield University, and Prof Rui Chen led from the University of Loughborough. Our industrial partner was Lotus Engineering:

Hybrid Vehicle Zero Constraint Free Piston Energy Converter: EPSRC Grant: GR/S97507/01 2005 – 2008

Collaborating University: Dept. Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, University of Loughborough UK.

Collaborating Company: Lotus Engineering.

Consortium PI: Paul Stewart

The technology is based around a single-cylinder free-piston internal combustion engine (ICE), which is run on a 4-stroke cycle, with an integral linear electromagnetic machine and electromagnetically operated poppet valves. This is a rig run-round which gives an idea of the amount of ancillary work necessary to get a project like this off the ground. In this configuration, it operates like a single cylinder experimental engine, but has the advantage of offering complete control of piston trajectories to allow quasi-constant volume combustion

Publications

Gladwin D., Stewart P., Stewart J. and Cowley C., “DC Voltage Stabilisation for The Series Hybrid Electric Vehicle” Transactions of the Institute of Instrumentation, Systems and Automation, Vol 47/2 pp 222-228, April 2008.

Wilson D, Stewart P., Jewell G, Taylor B, “Methods of resistance estimation in permanent magnet synchronous motors for real-time thermal management.” IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion Vol.25, No.3. pp. 698-707, 2010

Kan Liu, Q. Zhang, Z.Q. Zhu, J. Zhang, A.W. Shen, Stewart P., “Two Novel MRAS Strategies for Identification of Parameters in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors ”, International Journal of Automation and Computing. Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 526-524, November 2010.

Gladwin D, Stewart P., Stewart J., “Internal combustion engine control for series-hybrid electric vehicles by evolutionary programming methods” International Journal of Systems Science – Computational Intelligence for Modelling and Control of Advanced Automotive Drivetrains, 42 (2). pp. 249-261. ISSN 0020-7721, 2011.

Gladwin D., Stewart P. and Stewart J., “A Controlled Migration Genetic Algorithm Operator for Hardware-in-the-Loop Experimentation”, IFAC Journal of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence. Volume 24, Issue 4, pp. 586-594,  2011.

Gladwin D., Stewart P. and Stewart J., “A Controlled Migration Genetic Algorithm Operator for Hardware-in-the-Loop Experimentation”, IFAC Journal of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence. Volume 24, Issue 4, pp. 586-594,  2011.

Wilson S., Stewart P. and Stewart J., “Real-time thermal management of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors by resistance estimation”, IET Transactions in Electric Power Applications. 6 (9). pp. 716-726. ISSN 1751-8660, 2012.

Chen R. ,Winward E., Stewart P. and Taylor B., “Quasi-Constant Volume (QCV) Spark Ignition Combustion”, 2009 SAE World Congress, April 20-23, 2009, Cobo Center, Detroit, MI, USA.

Gladwin D., Stewart P. and Stewart J., “Optimal engine control for series-hybrid electric vehicles by evolutionary programming methods”,  SAE International 2008 Powertrains, Fuels and Lubricants Congress, June 23-25, 2008 Shanghai, China 08SFL-0258

Stewart P., Gladwin D., Stewart J. and Cowley R., “Generator voltage stabilisation for the series-hybrid vehicle”, 33rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IECON 2007), Taipei, Taiwan, 5-8th November 2007. (Invited Paper)