I’m a mechanical engineering student and I know generally how HEVs operate, but I can’t seem to find anywhere that explicitly explains how torques are “added together” to increase overall torque of the vehicle.
Is there a particular device that allows two shafts to drive one (thus adding their torques), and does that mean that both these shafts would need to have the same rotational velocity to avoid excess torsion on the driven shaft?
Any explanation would be greatly appreciated!
In: Engineering
I’m sure that different solutions are used in different applications, but I know that in the Prius they use a planetary gearset to handle the multiple inputs. This allows for the inputs to operate at different RPMS. There are some pretty good youtube videos that show how it works. Here is a (https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=MsvVD0FaF28) of a demonstration model. In the case of the Prius, the combination of inputs and outputs yields an entire transmission that works like a CVT (varying the speeds of the gas motor and electric motors allows for variable speed in forward and reverse without a separate transmission).
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