Wind Energy Harvester for Vehicles' Battery Charging

As the population and advancement of the world are expanding day by day, the electrical consumption is increasing along with it. According to research, there will be almost 50 billion devices on the internet in the near future. A concept of electric cars has been introduced too. This will ra

Project Title

Wind Energy Harvester for Vehicles' Battery Charging

Project Area of Specialization

Electrical/Electronic Engineering

Project Summary

As the population and advancement of the world are expanding day by day, the electrical consumption is increasing along with it. According to research, there will be almost 50 billion devices on the internet in the near future. A concept of electric cars has been introduced too.

This will rapidly increase the demand for electricity. Here, a need for electricity production from renewable energy resources arrives, so as to reduce the emission of toxic chemicals in the environment. Ideas have been proposed for this using solar energy by solar panels and wind energy by wind turbines.

Now, electricity production from solar energy depends strongly upon the environment i.e. the presence of sun and clouds. In this project, we have come up with an idea of self-dependent vehicles. This project proposes electricity production from wind pressure being exerted on the car [1] when it is moving. A fan will be mounted on the part of the vehicle where there is maximum wind pressure being exerted.

The wind pressure being exerted will be converted into electrical energy via the mechanical movement of the fan. After this, voltage rectifiers and stabilizers could be possibly used to get the required power output[2]. Using this electric power, the vehicle’s battery will be charged. Moreover, the more the speed is, the more pressure will be exerted thus more electricity production will be there. The general concept of the proposed project is shown in Figures 1 and 2

                                                                  Figure 1: Wind Pressure exerted on the car

                                                Figure 2: Fan mounted (front view) & electricity generation (side view)

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Refrences:-

[1]   Salehin, Sayedus, S. M. Ferdous, Walid Bin Khaled, Benozir Ahmed, and Enaiyat Ghani Ovy. "Electric vehicle with charging  facility in motion using wind energy." In World Renewable Energy Congress-Sweden; 8-13 May; 2011; Linköping; Sweden, no. 057, pp. 3629-3636. Linköping University Electronic Press, 2011.

[2]   Quartey, Gideon, and Stephen Kwasi Adzimah. "Generation of Electrical Power by a Wind Turbine for Charging Moving Electric Cars." Journal of Energy Technologies and Policy, Vol.4, No.3, 2014

Project Objectives

To make an efficient charging system that can compensate for the charging of the electric vehicles’ batteries on long routes is the main scope of the project.

Following are the project aims under pipeline:

• Place the wind turbine on the basis of Aerodynamics analysis.
• To convert wind/air into electrical energy via mechanical energy (fan rotation).
• To get required DC regulated voltage.
• To charge the vehicle’s battery and measure its voltage.
• To display the measured electrical outputs like the voltage, current, & power and the percentage of remaining battery.

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Project Implementation Method

When the car will move, air will strike it and will cause air pressure on it. Airstream is a sustainable asset that will go through the cutting edges of the fan. The wind will turn the blades of the fan that will produce torque and as a result, kinetic energy will be produced. Now, when the fan will rotate, it will cause rotation of the rotor of the motor. Thus, voltages will be generated and the amplitude of these voltages will depend upon the number of rotations (RPMs) of the rotor.

The flow chart of the project can be seen below:

                                                                         Figure 3: Flow chart of the proposed project.

As we are using DC motor so DC voltages will be generated but there will be a range of DC voltages. As it is needed for the electric vehicle’s battery to get charged at constant voltages, so the range of DC voltages generated by the DC motor will be stabilized. DC voltage stabilizer will be used that will stabilizer/regulate the range of DC voltages to a specific DC voltage but will allow maximum current to pass through it.

At the end of the stabilizer, voltage and current sensors will be used to sense the current passing through it and the voltage across it and pass the information over to the microcontroller (Arduino). The power being generated by the motor, after stabilization, will be stored in a separate battery or a capacitor bank. Thus, the stored power will be provided to the battery of the car when required. Moreover, an LCD will be attached to the Arduino and it will display the current, voltage and power being generated by the motor. It will also display the percentage up to which the first battery has been charged.

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Benefits of the Project

The proposed project has a wide variety of technological and socio-economic benefits for the country. Some of them are as follows:

• As electrical vehicles is an inevitable future of our country, the proposed project could be manufactured and produced widely in the country, providing a strong boost to the country’s industry.
• The proposed project will have a wide variety of integration with other fields for futuristic control and advancements such as IoT, advanced car designs, advanced electrical controls for electric cars etc.

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Technical Details of Final Deliverable

1.  Mechanical Details

The main part of the mechanical design of the project is the diffuser. It will be mounted on the front of the vehicle. The purpose of this diffuser is to provide mechanical support to the fan that is on the front of the vehicle. Moreover, the design of this diffuser will be such that it allows air to pass through it.

2.  Electrical Details

• Electricity Generation

The first step is the generation of electricity. When the vehicle will be driven, the wind will strike it and will cause the fan to rotate thus, rotating the shaft of the Permanent Magnet DC motor and so generating the electricity.

• Voltage Regulation

After the generation of the electrical power, the DC voltages are being regulated using DC voltage stabilizers, so as to charge the battery of the vehicle from constant voltage.

• Voltage and Current Measurement

Voltage and Current sensors are being used to measure the voltage and current being supplied to the battery of the vehicle for charging.

• Display

After measurement of the electrical parameters i.e. voltage, current and power, they are displayed on the Liquid Crystal Display. Moreover, the percentage of the vehicle's battery will be shown on the LCD display.

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Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Energy

Other Industries

Transportation

Core Technology

Clean Tech

Other Technologies

Shared Economy

Sustainable Development Goals

Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com