Gyrobus
A Gyrobus is a bus with electric drive , the energy exclusively of a flywheel energy storage in an entrained flywheel comes. The word gyro comes from the Greek γύρος , spinning top ',' round ' . The first gyrobuses were built in Switzerland by Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon (MFO) as early as the 1950s and operated until 1960. In the 1990s, MAN gyrobuses were used in Munich and Bremen .
principle
Before the start of operations in the depot , at certain intermediate stops and especially during longer stays at the end stations of a line , a connection to the power grid is established using a three-arm pantograph . The vehicle is supplied with three-phase alternating current with a voltage of 500 volts, which is used to accelerate the flywheel. The braking energy can also be recovered , as in battery buses or hybrid buses , and transferred to the flywheel. A occupied gyrobus could travel six to eight kilometers with a single charge that took up to five minutes. Usually, however, a charging station was set up every four kilometers.
The interior with the flywheel in the middle
The flywheel in detail
The motor
Charging process I
Charging process II
Legal position
Gyrobuses were sometimes assigned to trolleybuses, the term catenary is to be understood further. For example, the Swiss gyrobuses - like the trolleybuses - were listed in the register of rolling stock of the Swiss private railways . Other than these, but needed the Gyrobusse license plates .
Advantages and disadvantages
The gyrobus is quieter than a diesel vehicle and does not generate any exhaust gases along the route. In contrast to trolleybuses , it does not require a contact line . This means that it can be used flexibly on changing routes. For the operator, there are no investment costs for the construction of the line, the cityscape is preserved because there are no overhead lines.
One disadvantage is the weight: a gyrobus for around 20 people and an action radius of 20 kilometers requires around 1.5 tons of flywheel mass with conventional steel flywheels to store the necessary 18 MJ (5 kWh). In addition, the rotating disk requires special safety measures. The peripheral speed of a disc with a diameter of 1.6 meters at 3000 revolutions per minute is around 900 km / h. In addition, the flywheel housing must be evacuated in order to reduce air friction and the associated loss of energy. These measures increase the total weight by around three tons compared to a comparable diesel vehicle. Modern flywheels made of wound carbon fiber reinforced plastic can operate at higher speeds. They are lighter and would reduce the weight of the gyro bus.
Another disadvantage is the driving behavior of a gyro vehicle. The flywheel rotating around a vertical axis causes tilting forces on the vehicle when the road gradient changes. However, this effect can be canceled out by using two counter-rotating flywheels.
Also because of these disadvantages, the concept of the flywheel-drive bus did not catch on. In addition, there were ever more powerful buses with internal combustion engines with longer ranges that were more flexible in use. The idea of charging electrical energy to the bus at the bus stop is back in focus due to the ecological problems of the internal combustion engine. The “Capabus”, which was on the road at Expo 2010 in Shanghai , functioned according to this principle again, but used capacitors for energy storage due to the disadvantages described .
Scheduled missions
In Switzerland, the transport company Société anonyme des Transport Publics Yverdon-Grandson (TPYG) used two gyrobuses on the eight-kilometer Tuileries de Grandson-Condémines route between September 1953 and October 1960. They ran every hour, in rush hour every half hour. From 1953 to 1960, both gyrobuses covered a total distance of around 720,000 kilometers.
From August 6, 1955 on, gyrobuses also operated on four lines in Léopoldville - the capital of what was then the Belgian Congo . The violence between a gyrobus driver and demonstrators on January 4, 1959 is considered one of the causes of the Congolese struggle for independence. In the 1950s, operations were stopped again because of technical problems on the one hand and the beginning of the "Congo turmoil" on the other.
The gyrobuses from Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon were also used in Ghent , Belgium . There three cars were delivered to the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Vicinaux , they ran on a 9.6 kilometer line from Ghent to Merelbeke . They were in use from September 1956 to November 1959.
For the residents of a gyrobus line, the tests were positive, they were spared exhaust fumes and the sight of overhead lines . However, the research ended prematurely due to the advancing motorization and the operator's desire for greater flexibility. The 19 vehicles were distributed as follows:
| number | Years of construction | Chassis numbers | Company numbers | Operation / description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1950 | 812 | none, from 1954: 3 |
Test vehicle with trial operation in several Swiss cities (including 1950 in Altdorf UR, as a possible replacement for the tram ), mounted on a truck chassis from 1932, delivered to Yverdon in 1954 |
| 2 | 1953 | 3495 and 3496 | 1 and 2 | Yverdon-les-Bains |
| 1 | ? | 3497 | no | Chassis delivered to MFO, became MFO's demonstration vehicle |
| 12 | 1954 | 3644 to 3655 | 101 to 112 | Léopoldville |
| 3 | 1955/56 | 3898 to 3900 | G1, G2 and G3 | Ghent |
A vehicle that also carried out demonstration drives was exhibited at the 1953 German Transport Exhibition in Munich. The exhibition catalog shows a vehicle in operation at a loading point with a license from the Canton of Zurich .
In the 1970s, gyrobuses with diesel hybrid drives were tested at Volvo and MAN. Some of the gyrobuses that were again operated as city buses in Munich and Bremen in the 1990s later ended up in museums.
Recuperation using flywheel storage
Recuperation of braking energy using flywheel storage was used, for example, in the Basel trolleybus . The trolleybuses used in Basel were resold to Bulgaria . The “ AutoTram ” developed in Dresden has also been using a flywheel to store energy again since 2005; however, it is just a smaller flywheel, which is not the only drive, but merely supports a fuel cell and serves to temporarily store braking energy. Modern flywheel storage systems have also been used in racing cars to buffer braking energy, for example in the Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid .
The hydrobus
The hydraulic drive is another principle based on energy storage in mass force, although it has only been tested to a small extent. The energy generated by a diesel engine or fed in from a charging station is preserved in a bladder accumulator. The energy is extracted and stored by changing the pressure and volume. Contrary to what might be expected from the name, the liquid used was not water, but oil. At MAN, a double-decker bus was equipped with such a drive for test purposes, coupled with a diesel engine . Compared to the gyro drive, there was the advantage that there was no loss of energy in the idle state. The enormous mass of the hydraulic accumulators as well as the high manufacturing costs were reasons why little perspective was given to further development.
See also
literature
- The gyro bus . In: Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift . 4/1952, pp. 90-91.
- Omnibus with flywheel drive . In: German road traffic . December 1953, pp. 192-193.
- The gyro bus . In: Motor year 1982 , transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin, pp. 84/85
- Peter Michels: The Gyrobus . In: Yearbook Omnibus 2017 , Podszun-Motorbücher Verlag, Brilon 2016, ISBN 978-3-86133-815-4 , pp. 43–50
Web links
- The gyrobus from FBW
- History of the Gyrobus and technical details (French)
- Gyrobus: a great idea takes a spin (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Video Planet e: More energy through flywheel technology (from 3:30 p.m.) in the ZDFmediathek , accessed on May 8, 2012. (offline)
- ↑ The Gyrobus - a world first without success , article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of May 20, 2003, online at nzz.ch, accessed on November 19, 2019
- ^ Gerhard Hole: BOKraft Commentary, Law and Practice Personenverkehr Verlag Heinrich Vogel, Munich, 1975, ISBN 3-574-24015-5 .
- ^ Directory of the rolling stock of Swiss private railways 1956 , Section F Trolleybus and Gyrobus companies , pages 194–195
- ↑ David Van Reybrouck: Congo. A story. Paperback edition, Suhrkamp, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-46445-8 , p. 295.
- ^ Emil Maurer (editor): German Transport Exhibition - Official Catalog . Carl Gabler, Munich 1953, p. 116.
- ↑ The Hydro-Bus . In: Motor year 1982 , transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrwesen Berlin, pp. 85–87.