DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ECOFRIENDLY WATER VEHICLE
H.M. Bayzid Belal
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International University
Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
bayzid.belal@gmail.com
Moin Uddin
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International University
Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
moinuddin@ieee.org
Tajbia Karim
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International University
Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
karim_tajbia@aiub.edu
Shantanu Nath
Electrical and Electronics Engineering
American International University
Bangladesh
Dhaka, Bangladesh
sknath@aiub.edu
Abstract— This research represents a design of an electrical
water vehicle by using the freely available renewable energy
source known as wind. The main objective of this design is to
develop a wind renewable power station inside a water vehicle.
To achieve this goal vertical axis wind turbine, permanent
magnet motor/generator, dc motor/generator, boost converter
have been used. As shipping industries are facing a major
problem of reducing the fuel dependency and carbon-dioxide
emissions, this design will limit the fuel consumptions and
decrease the carbon-dioxide emissions.
Keywords— renewable energy, vertical axis wind turbine,
flettner rotor, magnus effect, DC motor/generator.
I. INTRODUCTION
The shipping industry has been facing with the challenge
of developing energy efficient ship designs comprising
innovative technology. Our goal is to reduce the fuel cost,
reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other harmful
gasses in a way that our environment and the economy both
turn into our favor. An ecofriendly water vehicle is being
designed which will partially run by generating electrical
energy by wind from vertical axis wind turbine. German
company enercon has built the world’s first wind powered
cargo ship which is focused to increase the ship’s speed so
that lesser fuel will be consumed[3]. To increase the speed,
the company installed flettner rotor sails. Flettner rotor sails
work using Magnus effect. Magnus effect is the force
applied on a rapidly rotating cylinder or sphere moving
through air or another fluid in a direction at an angle to the
axis of spin. For this effect the rotor sails get a propulsion
speed[2]. At present this technology is used as an auxiliary
propulsion system to increase the speed of a cargo ship. As a
result the overall fuel cost and the emission of carbondioxide and other gasses has decreased in a significant way.
But these rotors need to be rotated constantly by means of a
motor to work in the Magnus effect which consumes extra
fuel. Our goal is to operate the motor with wind power using
a vertical axis wind turbine and also provide energy to the
ship’s main propulsion system.
The primary objective of this project is to design a vertical
axis wind turbine according to the wind availability and the
secondary objective of this project is to design a water
vehicle which will run by wind energy by using vertical axis
wind turbine. Our country exports and imports materials
every day by sea and tons of fuel is being used for this
purpose. These fuels are harmful for marine life and also for
our environment. By converting any water vehicle such as a
cargo ship electrical water pollution can be emitted and
marine life can be saved in a substantial way.
II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
A. Earlier Research
Speed of a ship is the main concern for the engineers for
centuries. To meet the crisis, in 1924 a German engineer
Anton Flettner built a ship which propulsion was based on
Magnus effect. Flettner constructed an experimental rotor
vessel assisted by Albert Betz, Jakob Ackeret and Ludwig
Prandtl[2]. The first a large two-rotor ship named Buckau
was constracted by the Germaniawerft. The vessel was a
refitted schooner which carried two cylinders (or rotors)
around 15 metres high, and 3 metres in diameter, driven by
an electric propulsion system of 37 kW power[1]. Then in
1926, the shipyard A.G. Weser in Bremen built a larger ship
with three rotors named Barbara[2].
B. State of the Art Technology
The world is going renewable every day. From
household works to large overseas shipments. Speed of a
ship was the issue until a German company Enercon built
the world’s first wind powered propulsion system cargo
ship. To transport wind turbine components Enercon Gmbh
has made the E-Ship 1. E-Ship 1 is a RoLo cargo ship which
made his first voyage in August 2010. The ship’s length is
130m having two diesel engines of 3.5 MW. It can get its
speed up to 17.5 knots/32.4 km/h. The ship is using four
Flettner rotors and two propellers[3]. Now solar power
based electrical boats are being designed to voyage on sea.
But it has a major issue with travelling in the night.
After researching on the state of the art technologies, it has
been observed that, though Flettner rotor emits the fuel cost
and the harmful gas emissions, those designs are not totally
renewable. To operate the Flettner rotor a constant speed is
needed, which adds an extra amount of fuel energy
consumption. Our design offers a solution to that problem
by providing additional energy with the aid of VAWT.
Developing this design will limit the use of fossil fuels
which will be profitable for both shipping industries and
also general consumers.
B. Working Flow Chart of the System
III. MODELING
As wind speed at sea is very low, savonious wind
turbines were selected for this project. To design the
turbines, the swept area was necessary and for that how
much power has to be extracted from the wind is required
which is calculated by means of following equations.
Power Available in the Wind:
Power equation for rotor: P=
So power of rotor, P= 0.593*P
Here,
𝞺=density of wind= 1.23 kg/
[5]
, A= swept area= d*h,
d=diameter, h=hub height,
V∞=wind speed,
a= axial interference factor= 1/3
For this design two dc generators each rated 12v, 40 watt
was selected for experimenting in a small water vehicle.
A. Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Optimum Area Selection[5]
To meet 40 watts of power, the maximum wind power is
calculated from the equation of rotor power which is 8
watts. From this 8 watts of wind power at different wind
speeds, Table 1 is generated to select the optimum
dimension of the vertical axis wind turbine.
Wind
Speed
(m/s)
Table 1: Wind turbine’s optimum area selection
Swept
Diameter
Height
Area
(m)
(m)
1
13
Not feasible
Not feasible
2
1.62
Not feasible
Not feasible
3
0.48
Not feasible
Not feasible
4
0.203
0.3
0.68
4.8
0.12
0.2
0.6
5
0.104
0.2
0.52
5.5
0.078
Fig. 1. Working flow chart of the system
In the main design two turbines are positioned at the
main deck of the ship to encounter the full force of wind no
matter in which direction the wind flow is stronger. The
generators are connected with the turbines by means of a
gear box. Converted energy from the generators will be
added and then boosted if needed. The suitable energy can
be directly fed into the load and if needed extra energy can
be stored in storing device. Getting more additional energy
to reduce the fuel dependancy was kept in mind and thus
two turbine rotors was introduced in the design.
IV. SIMULATED AND EXPERIMENTED RESULTS
6
7
0.06
0.038
0.2
0.39
0.15
0.52
0.2
0.3
0.15
0.4
0.1
0.15
0.38
0.25
A. Schematic Simulated Results
As calculated, using area of 0.08
with a diameter and
height of respectively 20c.m. and 40c.m. would be the
perfect dimension for designing a small feasible prototype
for a small water vehicle.
Fig. 2. Schematic design of the prototype
Figure 2 describes two dc generators with no load has been
assumed to be at full speed which gives the maximum
output voltage. It can be shown by the oscilloscope view
below.
Fig. 6. Plot of Pressure and Torque of Turbine
Figure describes the plot of pressure and torque of the
turbine. As it is a four bladed turbine, the torque is high for
low fluid flow.
Fig. 3. Simulated oscilloscope view of the schematic design
B. Flow Simulation Results
C. Experimented Results
Table 2 is generated by means of a small prototype with
different wind speeds. The two turbines are facing different
wind speeds due to the turning of the water vehicle. Two dc
generators of 12V, 40 watts is used in the prototype with a
dc-to-dc booster (gain is set to 5 times the input). The main
load of the designed prototype was a 24V dc fan.
Total generated emf
E=E1+E2
(V)
Generated emf from
generator 2
E2 (V)
Speed of wind source 2
(m/s)
Distance between wind
source 2 and rotor 2
(cm)
Generated emf from
generator 1
E1
(V)
Speed of wind source 1
(m/s)
Fig. 4. Wind pressure near turbine
Distance between wind
source 1 and rotor 1
(cm)
Table 2: EMF measured for different types of wind speeds and distances
30
7.6
3.38
36
8.2
1.99
5.37
36
6.5
2.59
56
6.5
1.20
3.79
50
6.3
2.50
70
4.8
1.00
3.50
70
5.8
1.89
88
4.6
0.68
2.57
Average total generated emf, E = 3.81V
After boosting it becomes = (3.81 * 5)V = 19.05V; which is
about 79.34% back up to the main load.
Fig. 5. Wind Velocity near turbine
D. Graphical Analysis
In the figure 4 & 5, a turbine is positioned at the centre of a
wind tunnel to observe the wind pressure and velocity
difference near turbune. It is observed that the pressure and
velocity of the wind is quite hight at the moment of impact
and after the impact both pressure and velocity slightly
decreased. Causing a suave rotation for the turbine.
Fig. 7. Wind source 1 speed VS Generator 1 emf
Fig. 8. Wind source 2 speed VS Generator 2 emf
V. CONCLUSION
Wind power is the use of wind flow through different
types of wind turbines to provide mechanical power to
different types of generators to generate electrical energy.
Wind power is an appropriate alternative to fossil fuels and
it is plentiful, renewable and totally clean. In our research
we designed a wind renewable power system on the main
deck of a water vehicle to give backup to main load of the
vehicle and internal appliances. In the prototype a dc fan has
been used as the main load to run with the generated energy.
Overall all hardware implementation was done successfully
and load ran to it’s full speed.
Main objective of the proposed system is to operate that
motor by wind power and also provide energy to the ship’s
main propulsion system. Proposed system will be totally
green and also can store energy for future uses. Developing
this design will also limit the use of fossil fuels which will
be profitable for both shipping industries and also general
consumers.
The goal of this research is to build a green and renewable
water vehicle which will emit the cost of fossil fuel used per
year and also emit water pollution in a substantial way. The
proposed design is to set up a renewable power system to
the main deck of a cargo ship. The reason behind these types
of water vehicles, carries a huge load and manufacturing
advantage is having a stable weight ratio and balance during
high tides and stormy waves at sea.
Our design is perfect for these type of vehicle because a
savonius rotor is being used which operates in low wind
flow. Also the size is reasonable and it does not take much
maintenance due to the simple construction of this type of
turbine system. And our prototype cost is low and can be
varied from design to design.
Merging Flettner rotor sails with our design will increase the
ship’s main propulsion speed and also it will be totally
green.
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