Preliminary Investigation on Generation of Electricity Using Micro Wind Turbines Placed Behind the Front Bumper of the Ca

With increasing global warming concerns, it has become very important to reduce the fuel emissions by using hybrid and complete electric vehicles. However, these technologies are costly as they require a battery with high capacity. To counter these expensive solutions, here, we investigated an idea of generating electricity with the help of micro wind turbines. Wind energy is a vital source of renewable energy in the world, and many inventions using wind energy have been developed in the last several years. This thesis work studies the use of micro wind turbines placed behind the front bumper of a car to produce electricity, and thus generated energy can be used to charge the battery or power other electronic accessories without affecting the aerodynamic performance of the car. By placing four micro wind turbines behind the front bumper of the car (Honda Accord LX 1998), we researched the possibility of producing power while assessing the impact of drag coefficient through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. After analyzing the results, it was found that the wind turbine setup had a very negligible effect on the drag coefficient and it was also confirmed through the gas mileage of the car in the field studies. Initially, we established a relationship between the car speed and wind velocity using an anemometer. In continuation, the car was driven at speeds ranging from 0 to 80 mph on the highways with wind turbine setup behind the front bumper. The voltage and power produced always showed an increasing trend with cumulative car speed. However, the wind speed obtained from the anemometer reduced at high car speeds beyond 45 mph due to changing wind flow profile. A maximum voltage of 17 V and a maximum current of 0.55 A were generated by the setup of four micro wind turbines with a load consisting of four LED bulbs in series (each LED - 7.2 V, 0.45 A). In another test, a commercial lead-acid battery (12V and 5 Ahr) was charged within 100-105 minutes for a complete charge from the state of charge 49 to 99% while traveling at 70 mph on the freeway. These studies provide a direction toward possible utilization of wind energy as an auxiliary source for automobiles to reduce the fuel consumption and thereby help in enhancing the fuel mileage and reduce the emissions.