May 24, 2005 - Provide DoE energy report data and analysis.
May 22, 2005 - Baseline release
Introduction
This page shows the transaxle oil temperature, Amsoil ATF, measured at the
drain plug in an NHW11, 03 Prius.
A modified drain plug has a thermister in direct contact with the oil whose
resistance is measured with a DVM.
Data was recorded manually and time using the vehicle clock.
An Excel spreadsheet converts ohms to degrees F.
Commute Routes
Due to stop signs and lights, the actual speed is always less than the
target speed.
The operator target speeds on the current commute route uses:
- 1.5 mile, 25 mph warm-up neighborhood streets
- ~7 mile, 35 mph access route and city streets
- ~1.5 mile, 25 mph cool-down streets
The rate of temperature increase is about 0.9 (F)/min.
This route is a little faster: 1.1 mile @25 mph warm-up neighborhood streets;
5 miles @55 mph; 2.0 miles @35 mph; 1 mile @55 mph; 1 mile @25 mph cool-down.
The rate of temperature over the whole interval is 1.0 (F)/min.
Highway Warm Up
The route was relatively level, divided highway, I-565 west of Huntsville, from
Research Blvd. to I-65 and back.
Three cruise control maintained speeds: 65, 70 and 60 mph.
The rate of temperature increase was 1.6 (F)/min. during the first
18-19 minutes.
Transaxle Energy Loss
The November 2004 report "Evaluation of 2004 Toyota Prius Hybrid Electric
Drive System Interim Report"
by C. W. Ayers, J. S. Hsu, L. D. Marlino, C. W. Miller, G. W.
Ott, Jr., and C.B. Oland, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL/TM-2004/247)
has a series of tables, 3.8-3.13, that show the energy loss of the
2004 transaxle at temperatures from 28-80 (C) at different rpms.
The following chart shows a series of parametric curves at different rpms
showing the energy loss as a function of temperature within each rpm:
Two lines, one at the 28 (C) value and one at the 70 (C) value were drawn to
give an idea of energy loss at rpms between any two rpm curves.
Not the highest value, the 70 (C), 158 (F), line is just above the
highest temperatures so far measured in high-speed cruise tests.
To keep the rpm curves separated, a 'null' entry was put in that
displaces each curve to the right.
The report 500 rpm data was dropped since the Prius ICE never runs at this speed
and rpm above 5,500 since the ICE is speed limited below this value.
Transaxle oil temperature is controlled by the heat from mechanical energy
generated within the gearing and cooling from case cooling and some inverter
coolant loop.
As the oil warms up, the viscosity goes down and the amount of heat generated
goes down.
Unfortunately, there is no oil cooling and heating loop in the radiator as would
be found in a regular, automatic transmission vehicle.
In other cars, this missing heat exchanger accellerates heating to 80 (C) when
the ICE warms up.
Later, the missing radiator heat exchanger helps cool the transaxle oil so it
won't suffer thermal runaway.
Both heating and cooling are important to efficient transmission operation.
Although the absolute energy losses are modest, all of this heating
comes from mechanical energy.
So a 750 W. load requires 1 hp from the ICE which assuming a 33% efficency,
requires three times as much energy to generate.
Meant only as a rough rule of thumb, 1 kW of inverter energy from the Prius
takes about 0.25 gal/hr. of fuel.
In normal cruise, 55-65 mph, the NHW11 Prius fuel burn is ~1.1 gal./hr.
The expected fuel savings will be much less than 0.25 gal/hr. along with
longer transaxle oil life due to less stress and a controlled thermal
environment.
If we can use engine waste heat and radiator cooling to keep the transaxle
oil in a narrower temperature range, say 80 (C), we can avoid some of
the mechanical heat loss and keep the transaxle in a temperature range
less subject to thermal stress. But this require knowing exactly
what is going on in the transaxle during normal operation.
To that end, a modified drain plug was installed with a thermister to record
transaxle oil temperature:
Getting the thermister resistance values into the cabin for measurement
is solved by installation of a data cable.
Data Cable Installation
These photos show how the Cat-5 cable is routed from the engine compartment
into the cabin:
The following photo shows the MG2 power box with the small vent tube located
on the top-right.
The end of the tube has a .25 inch gap with the plate under it.
It is very important that cleaning the engine never put water in this area
because it could cool the box and cause water to be injested onto the
MG2 power cables.
This could cause a ground-fault failure.
