Development of a Wind Power System on Trucks

Abstract

Nowadays, the shortage of fossil fuels consuming on vehicles are in an emergent situation. Moreover, the CO 2 emissions from transportations make a very negative impact on our environment. Therefore, to develop a renewable energy system for transportations becomes an important issue and draw a lot of attentions from academia and government agency. The aim of this study is to develop a wind power system for vehicles. A novel win turbine blade was designed and developed based on the methods of literature survey, TRIZ theory, and the theory of aerodynamics. Then, the system integration with gear, generator, and charge controller were carried out on a moving vehicle which could convert the wind power into electrical energy for use and storage. This study uses the CFD simulation software of ANSYS CFX to analyze the wind flow field of a truck, and simulate the dynamic status of the wind turbine in different locations. The result shows that the proposed wind power system on vehicles could generate about 300Watts while the vehicles are moving. The simulation result also provides very good evidence that the most appropriate installation position is in the front roof of a truck, where it could generate better efficiency of electricity in this research.