Simulation of effects of ORC system installation on heavy-duty truck

Exhaust thermal energy conversion based on ORC system has been considered as an effective method for improving engine fuel economy. In this paper, the performance of a heavy-duty truck fitted with an on-board ORC exhaust heat recovery system was evaluated through simulations. The models of the truck/engine and the ORC/cooling system were developed in GT-suite and validated experimentally. A coupling model was developed in the Simulink environment. The performance of the engine ORC system using R123 and R245fa was evaluated individually. The performance of the vehicular system with different condensers which have the same volume was also evaluated. The effects of the increased backpressure and weight caused by ORC system on performance of the truck engine were discussed. The benefit and penalty of the on-board system under different engine speed, truck speed and cargo mass conditions were also analyzed. The simulation results indicated that the cargo mass, engine speed, truck speed had significant effects on performance of the truck engine with ORC system. The truck engine had a profit of 3.07 kW at the speed of 95 km/h under full cargo load condition. While an additional engine power consumption of 0.67 kW was required at the truck speed of 30 km/h due to the increased weight of the ORC system.