Integration of wind into running vehicles to meet its total energy demand
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Massive development in transportation sectors has accelerated fossil fuel energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles account for nearly 30% of global warming. We need clean energy for transportation sectors to meet their energy demand and avoid global warming. In this study, a wind energy system model was developed by integrating advanced technological and mathematical aspects to obtain a potential solution for the total energy demand of transportation sectors. Detailed analysis of the theoretical wind energy systems was modeled by a series of mathematical equations that were then proposed for use in transportation sectors to naturally meet their energy demand. To better explain this technology and its application in the transportation sectors, a sample experimental model of a car was also described as a hypothetical experiment. Interestingly, both the theoretical modeling and experimental analysis of the car confirm that a turbine can be a promising tool to utilize wind energy to generate electricity from self-renewing resources to power the car; importantly, wind energy is clean and globally abundant. The proposed wind energy system could be an innovative large-scale technology in energy science that can enable vehicles that produce energy from the wind when the vehicle is in motion, thus meeting 100% of the vehicle’s energy demand.
KeywordsNatural air Turbine modeling Running vehicle Energy conversion Powering vehicle
Conventional energy utilization for the transportation sectors is not only costly but also causing adverse environmental impact (Zin et al. 2013; Abdullah et al. 2011). Though several article has been conducted (Bianchi et al. 2007; Gopal Sharma et al. 2013) to proposed a wind turbine system in which the AC power form the wind is directly supplied to the load via un-interruptible power supply (UPS) to be provided utility company or national grid, but no one has been studied the integration of wind energy directly into vehicle yet. Interestingly, the this article described the wind power technology can be implemented into the all vehicles directly to meet its total energy demand while it is in a motion which indeed shall mitigate the energy and climate change crisis. Thus, wind energy has the high potential to produce energy for transportation vehicles once it is utilized by a sophisticated technology. Modern wind turbines are small, simple and highly sophisticated devices compared with turbines from the mid-twentieth century, when turbines were extremely tall and large where the turbine engine capacity from roughly 5–10 kW; rotors now often exceed 0.25 meters in diameter and are positioned on towers exceeding 1 m in height. Thus, modern turbines are indeed much cheaper than previous ones which could be the best tool to implement into the vehicle to produce energy naturally. In this article, an innovative theory was analyzed to implement this wind energy into vehicles while the vehicles are in motion. The wind turbine modeling and drive train modeling (by one-mass model) was conducted using the MATLAB Simulink software package. The kinetic energy conversion process was divided into two main interacting subsystems, and the detailed process of conversion procedure was modeled; results of the energy conversion chain analysis were also analyzed using the MATLAB software. Subsequently, the control structure, design and generator model were also analyzed using a series of mathematical calculations to prepare a theoretical model for total process energy capture by wind turbine and utilization by running vehicles. Finally this model was hypothetically applied into a car as an experimental tool which revealed that wind energy-generated transportation vehicles could indeed be a cutting-edge technology to reduce to eliminate the cost of energy for all transportation vehicles.
2 Theoretical modeling of wind energy
2.1 Turbine modeling
2.2 Drive train modeling
2.3 One-mass model
3 Wind energy conversion
3.1 Aerodynamic subsystem
Signals in the simulations may be to use logs of real speed at the real location of the wind turbine generation system (WTGS).
3.2 Electrical subsystem
4 Control structure
The wind turbine subsystem control concerns the aerodynamic subsystem, which provides the reference inputs for the DFIG subsystem control.
The DFIG subsystem control concerns the electric generator via the power converter.
It is worth mentioning that there is no need for a reference voltage, torque limiter or saturation block because of the inherent limits of the references generated at the transients. After obtaining the voltage, pulse width modulation (PWM) is used to generate the gating pulses with a fixed switching frequency for the load-side converter.
4.1 Wind turbine subsystem control
In practice, there are two possible regions of turbine operation: high- and low-speed regions (E.W.E Association 2012). High-speed operation (IV) is frequently bounded by the speed limit of the machine. Conversely, regulation in the low-speed region (II) is usually not restricted by speed constraints.
However, the system has nonlinear non-minimum phase dynamics in this region. Generally, wind turbine control objectives are functions of the wind speed. For low wind speed, the objective is to optimize the capture of wind power through tracking the optimal rotor speed signals (Faida and Saadi 2010; Bianchi et al. 2007; Ghennam et al. 2007). Once the wind speed increases above its nominal value, the control objective moves to the rated regulating power. Numerous methods for MPPT have been proposed in the literature (Gopal Sharma et al. 2013; Gupta et al. 2011).
4.2 DFIG subsystem control
The per-phase stator resistance is neglected (the realistic approximation for medium power machines used in WECS).
Because of the constant stator voltage, the stator active and reactive powers are controlled via i qr and i dr .
Therefore, field-oriented control of the DFIG can then be performed, with the rotor currents considered as the variables to be controlled.
Decoupled control is guaranteed without feed-forward compensation because the FLC inherently eliminates the cross-coupling terms between the two axes [Eq. (14)]. In steady state for a lossless generator, we can use the following energy balance: P s + Pr = P m , where P s = T em ω s and P m = T q ω.
From the MPPT method, the electromagnetic torque is used to calculate the reference value for the stator’s active power, which follows a pre-defined turbine power–speed characteristic to track the maximum power point (Hossain 2016; Tsourakisa et al. 2009; Grätzel 2001).
5 Controller design
Because of the robustness of the fuzzy logic controller for many nonlinear procedures and characteristics, this paper suggests the design of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) with a Mamdani fuzzy inference system (Slootweg 2005; Kerrouche et al. 2014). The fuzzy logic controller includes four parts: (1) a fuzzification block that determines the input membership values; (2) a fuzzy inference system (FIS) that evaluates which control rules are appropriate at each time by using the fuzzy knowledge-based block (Kazemi et al. 2012; Stieber 2008; Boutotbat et al. 2013); (3) a defuzzification block that calculates the output of the rules leading to the defuzzification technique (Pichan et al. 2013; Publishing and Agency 2010). Figure 9 shows the block diagram of the fuzzy controller.
For a successful design, proper selection of the gains in the FLC is crucial, and in many cases, this is performed through trial and error to achieve the best possible control performance.
The input and output linguistic variables of the fuzzy controller are quantized based on the three fuzzy subsets. The fuzzy sets have been determined to be NG (negative great), EX (zero) and PG (positive great).
The input and output linguistic variables of the two fuzzy controllers have been quantized in the following five fuzzy subsets. The fuzzy sets have been defined as NL (negative large), NS (negative small), ZQ (zero), PS (positive small), Pm (positive medium) and PL (positive large).
Short-term fluctuations in the wind speed may result in a change in the output power and a shift in the operating point (Pichan et al. 2013). Thus, to avoid these undesirable effects, reducing the number of MFs is a solution to smooth the changes in the output power; increasing the number of MFs will produce a delay because of the increased number of computational steps required for some bands (Li et al. 2010; Tazil et al. 2010; Brekken and Mohan 2007).
To trade-off between accuracy and complexity, rigorous simulation studies found that five MFs are sufficient to produce the desired results in the required bands.
6 Generator modeling
The values of constants c1–c6 are discussed below.
7 Simulation and discussion
In this paper, a complete model was presented for a wind turbine generation system based on an induction generator. A cascade control algorithm was properly designed to ensure optimal operation of the whole system and was based on an FLC with stator flux orientation and the MPPT technique. Furthermore, the output power is smoothed despite wind fluctuations, which is commonly required in a grid connected to a wind farm. This technique has been successfully applied to generate a reference for tracking the active power by using the rotor-side converter control. Additionally, this strategy can reduce the stress in the pitch control system by adjusting the value of the power coefficient according to wind speed variations to extract the maximum wind power and limit it to its rated value. In simulations, a robustness test was performed by adding a wind speed signal and voltage dips. The simulation results demonstrate the inherent ability of the FLC to address this type of noise while operating under fault conditions at the rated wind speed.
Figure 4 shows that the maximum values of C p are achieved for the curve associated with β = 2°. From this curve, the maximum value of C p (C p,max = 0.5) is obtained for λ opt = 0.91. This value (λ opt) represents the optimal speed ratio. These conditions permit application of MPPT control. For the DFIG control, we use indirect power control with an FLC. The wind profile was considered to be a wind speed signal with a mean value of 8 m/s and a rated wind speed of 10 m/s; the whole system is tested under standard conditions with a stator voltage of approximately 50% for 0.5 s between 4 and 4.5 s, approximately 25% between 6 and 6.5 s and 50% between 8 and 8.5 s (Wang and Truong 2013; Wang et al. 2010). Thus, the machine is considered to be functioning in ideal conditions (no perturbations and no parameter variations). Moreover, to guarantee a unity power factor at the stator side, the reference for the reactive power is set to zero. The stator active and reactive powers are controlled according to the MPPT and FLC.
As a result of increasing wind speed, the generator shaft speed achieved maximum angular speed by tracking the maximum power point speed. Thus, the wind turbine always works optimally. Consequently, decoupling among the components of the rotor current was also performed to confirm that the control system worked effectively.
The bidirectional active and reactive power transfer between the rotor and power system is exchanged by the generator according to the super synchronous operation, achieving the nominal stator power, and the reactive power can be controlled by the load-side converter to obtain the unit’s power factor to generate energy for powering vehicles.
8 Theoretical experiment on a car
In a WECS, the accuracy with which the peak power output of electricity is obtained from a point of the maximum power point tracking control system by the controller depends on the track. This experiment thus fed the induction generator stand (DFIG) that is used for extracting the maximum power from the use of a WECS. With the MPPT control method, the MPPT WECS are presented as controllers that are used for extracting the maximum possible energy from wind power generation, which, interestingly, is related to the speed of the car.
9 Battery modeling
A battery is used as a backup power source to store the power when power production exceeds the demand. For a standard car to become fully energized, 20 kWh is required. Thus, if the car runs at 10 MPH for 2 h, it will fully charge and be able to run for an average of 200 miles; consequently, if the car runs at 60 MPH, it will only take 20 min to fully charge and be able to run for the same number of miles.
Thus, the value of k should be determined after a certain number of recharge cycles. The value of k for a lead acid battery is 1.3–1.4.
9.1 Conceptual estimate for design and construction of a renewable wind energy-powered car
List of components
GC and OH cost
Brand new car
Electrical and mechanical control
Supply for 20 years cost is $0.00, but maintenance cost is $200/year
9.2 Savings in terms of energy costs
Twenty years of operation of a conventionally powered standard car (15,000 miles/year) requires 750 gallons of gasoline per year at an average rate of 20 miles/gallon (750 × 33.70 = 25,275 kWh/year), which is equivalent to 505,500 kWh of energy for 20 years. The cost of this conventional energy is (750 gallons × 20 years × $2.25, or $0.067/kWh for total of 505,500 kh) $33,750, and cost of a car of $25,000 will make a combined cost of $58,750. This comparison between conventional energy usage and wind turbine energy production for a car clearly shows cost savings of $15,210 when a wind energy system is used as the energy source for a car. In addition to that, the cost of $13,000 (furnish and install) for a turbine can also be eliminated once the turbine system is commercially installed in cars, and the maintenance costs will be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Therefore, this estimate suggests that most of the $28,210 cost for running a car for 20 years can be saved once it is powered by wind energy. Subsequently, all other transportation energy costs can also be saved once vehicles are powered by wind energy.
Sustainability nowadays is a crucial issue globally because of the climate change due to the fossil fuel consumption where neatly 30% climate change is responsible by transportation sector. Naturally it causes the sea level rising, ocean acidification, ozone layer depletion, and threatening public and animal health (Kazemi et al. 2012). Though the evolution of wind energy over the past decade has surpassed which abundantly available anywhere in world which can be utilized with zero emission for transportations and with low production cost has not been studied yet. Research and development efforts in wind power integration into vehicles are thus required to continue for establishing techniques to eliminate the energy cost and environmental problem since transportation sectors throughout the world are powered by fossil fuels. This sector draws on finite resources that are already dwindling, resulting in increased costs. Fossil fuel retrieval is becoming ever more environmentally damaging. It is now generally accepted that meeting the steadily increasing demand for energy in transportation sectors solely on the basis of conventional generation technologies puts an unacceptably high stress on the environment. In combination, these factors have led to a major impetus for renewable energy-based power generation during the preceding two to three decades, and the trend is set to continue. Thus, when considering efficiency, WECSs have been receiving the most attention among the various renewable energy systems. Extraction of the maximum possible power from available wind power is indeed an innovative source because the development of smaller wind turbines and advanced technology could enable wind energy to serve as a power source for transportation sectors.
Interestingly, this article revealed that natural wind speed is not required because the turbine will start to rotate once the vehicle is in motion. This emergent new technology, together with the favorable framework for renewable energy, can play a prime role in renewable energy utilization for massive use in transportation sectors. The transportation sector needs 5.6 × 1020 J/y (560 EJ/y); currently, this energy is obtained by burning fossil fuel, which accounts for nearly 30% of the total annual global energy demand (Zerikat et al. 2010).
Therefore, if vehicles could be powered by wind, it would be a new of era of science to utilize wind energy in transportation sectors. Wind energy-powered vehicles would not only eliminate the energy cost for the transportation sector but also play a vital role in drastically reducing global warming.
This research was supported by Green Globe Technology under Grant RD-02016-04. Any findings, conclusions and recommendations expressed in this paper are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Green Globe Technology.
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