Designing a high-efficiency hydrostatic bicycle transmission

Hydrostatic bicycle drives use a working fluid instead of the common roller-chain to transmit power to the drive wheel. These transmissions are typically considered too inefficient for human power applications. An experiment consisting of a very simple hydrostatic drive was designed and built in an attempt to measure the efficiency of these devices at approximate cycling speeds. A theoretical model was also developed to help predict losses using a wider range of operational parameters. Due to shortcomings of the experiment design, the measured efficiencies were on the order of 60% - considerably lower than those theoretically possible. Although the experimental results are of limited value, this study highlights the importance of minimizing side-loading on hydraulic cylinder piston-rods during low-speed, low-pressure operation. The research is used to suggest several design features which may aid in continued attempts to develop a highly efficient hydrostatic transmission.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Socks, Matthew T. (Matthew Tristram)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David Gordon Wilson.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/36699

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/36699