Performance Investigation of Small Wind Turbine Installed over a Pick up Vehicle to Charge an Electric Vehicle Battery

Abstract

Wind energy is a vital energy free from pollution and freely available energy in our world. The purpose of this research is performance investigation of small horizontal axis wind turbine installed at the top of a pickup vehicle and the power generated from this wind turbine is used to charge the batteries of the vehicle. Permanent magnet generator is selected for the experiment as well as the selected type of the blade is NACA 4412 and its angle of attack is 6°. The angle of attack is determined by using Qblade software at the maximum lift to drag ratio of NACA 4412 airfoil. The blades of wind turbine are fabricated from wood because wood have excellent fatigue properties. The comparison between analytical analysis and experimental test is done based on the reaction wind speed, in order to achieve good matching between analytical analysis and experimental test. Finally, the power output from the wind turbine is used for charging the vehicle battery and the charging process is controlled by regulator. The maximum powers determined from the experimental and theoretical analysis are 334 W and 437 W at reaction wind speed of 28.6m⁄s respectively at the maximum vehicle speed of 25m⁄s.