High Output Turboelectric Diesel (HOTeD)

There is a current need for small heavy fuel engines that are light and reliable enough to be used in a variety of applications, such as UAV propulsion. The challenges for such an engine are in meeting the often stringent and competing requirements of high thermal efficiency and high power to weight ratio. Microturbines lack in thermal efficiency and small diesel engines lack in power to weight. An innovative solution to maximizing the flexibility and advantages of both of these platforms is an innovative hybrid engine combining several technologies. Preliminary analysis already shows potential advantages of this system including high power density, high thermal efficiency, and the flexibility to be scaled across a broad range of power requirements. This proposal outlines an effort to model this new hybrid engine, conduct an optimization and trade study, develop a preliminary design for a specific application, and outline a development plan that would take the engine design through the prototype stage.