Abstract
Wind energy generated from the wake of moving cars has a large energy potential that has not yet been utilized. In this study, a vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) was used to recover energy from the wakes of moving cars. The turbine was designed to be planted by the side of the car lane and driven by the wake produced by the car. Transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed to evaluate the performance of the VAWT. The influence of two main factors on the performance of the VAWT, the velocity of the car and the gap between the car and the rotor, were studied. The simulations confirmed the feasibility of this plan, and in the tested cases, the VAWT was able to generate a maximum energy output of 100.49 J from the wake of a car. The results also showed that the performance of the VAWT decreased with the velocity of the car, and the increased gap between the car and the VAWT.
Highlights
In recent years, the problem of fossil fuel resources and worldwide climate change are becoming more and more serious due to the rapid development of industrial economies and the fast growth of the world’s population
High-speed vehicles moving on highways produce strong disturbances to the air and transmit energy to the wake in the form of localized wind energy
This study only considers the situation for a single car passing by the turbine; more complex situations, such as multi-cars from one side and cars from both sides, will be studied later
Summary
The problem of fossil fuel resources and worldwide climate change are becoming more and more serious due to the rapid development of industrial economies and the fast growth of the world’s population. Especially developing countries, are facing the issue of an increasing demand for a limited supply of fossil fuel resources. According to dynamic monitoring data of the highways in 23 Chinese provinces, the total highway traffic flow was 516 million in July 2016 [2]. High-speed vehicles moving on highways produce strong disturbances to the air and transmit energy to the wake in the form of localized wind energy. The potential of the localized wind energy is high, considering the large amount of mileage and traffic flow that occurs. The idea of recovering energy from the wakes of vehicles has previously been proposed in several studies
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