"Porsche" Green Tank

Or green tanks that drive like a Porsche using Prius technology. This design is totally unfeasible, the Nazis had blueprints for several series hybrid tanks, but unlike their other Wunderwaffe, the hybrid tank has yet to be developed and fielded, not even for the foreseeable future. Having electric motors capable of propelling a tank at high speed would either be prohibitively heavy, unreliable, and/or expensive (the last being the least significant).

A modern battery could store .1 to .6 HPh per kilogram, or 100 to 600 HPh per tonne. Each tonne would roughly occupy a volume of one cubic meter.

The battery of a Prius weighs 80 kg and can power a 60 hp motor.
Scaling this up to a NS tank would yield a 40 times increase in mass. There will be significant negative returns to investment at this power, especially considering that the horsepower to speed relationship is that of a cuberoot formula.

Although the power demands of a tank are vastly, vastly, different. For one, they are much greater, with far more electronics, although the proportion of electric consumption per tonne compared between a modern tank and a car is probably less.

WTF are you talking about.

:rich:

He's probably trying to "address" a non-existent problem.

You can have better power densities at larger motor sizes.
Forza's GreenTank probably isn't a bad basis for a hybrid powerplant design.

if I'm reading it correctly, RnC is suggesting a hybrid electric tank. Problem I see being that I'm not convinced tanks have a variable enough power requirement for it to work.

Works great for cars, where you really only ever use a few tens of horsepower except when you're accelerating up to speed. But it's because average power demand is usually so much lower than peak power demand that it can work.



What's a tank powerplant's duty cycle? Anyone got an idea?

all of teh powah?

Given that most tanks now sport APUs implies that it is low, especially in defensive positions.

I'm actually including Forza's greentank design in my OP, which probably cannot be scaled up to a tank. I am not aware of any heavy trucks that use the Prius's synergy drive.

No you are not, because you did not endeavor to ask me prior.

My hybrid engine design isn't voodoo or completely insane. It's a small diesel engine with a pair of small (for average tank outputs) electric motors which all combine together to produce a reasonable amount of power. In theory, it's basically just an 800kw tank with a little button that can double the power to give you acceleration lulz when you need it. The upside is also that when the tank is stopped, the engine can be turned off giving you a stop-start function. And if you need to, the tank can crawl for a bit under electric power. It's far more Honda CR-Z than Prius. And yes, it is big and heavy.

Oh, R&C. Electric motors have been powering big, heavy things at fast speeds for years.

I see. So your tanks are in fact maglevs.

Some of your users claim 34.6 HP/t with a 1808 kw Forza engine.

The Fastech 360 is not a maglev.

Which is correct as the combined output of the engine can be up to 1808kw.

problem?

Lastly, I'm going to point out that hybrid versions of pickups to buses to military trucks are being tested and/or sold right now. Even the Shinkansen is being fitted with a battery pack for a kinetic energy recovery system. You'd better write to all these people R&C, tell them that batteries are inefficient at these sizes and tell them that electric motors can't make things go fast.

Nah.

I mean all these terrible things are being done in your name anyway.

Not mine.

You also forgot that those accelerations/discharge rates are unfeasible.

They are entirely feasible, R&C. You're forgetting that people like Sumer and USPA (who have first hand experiences with engines) have also reviewed Forza's design and found it both workable, and dependable.

If a hybrid set-up can power a train, then it can easily power a tank.

P. much what Lamoni said. There is no point arguing science and reality with you as I have learned from these boards.

Besides if you think I have a crap design, I'm glad. I'd be more worried if you thought it was clever.

"Tanks that drive like a Porsche" lolwut?