Possibility of Utilizing Wind Turbine to Recover a Portion of the Kinetic Energy Losses of a Car

In this paper, the possibility of utilizing a wind turbine to recapture a portion of the kinetic energy losses of a car, irrespective of being a traditional car that is propelled by an internal combustion engine or an electric vehicle (EV) that is propelled by an electric motor, is appraised. To investigate the topic, a small wind turbine has been inserted at the back of the condenser of a car to recover a portion of the kinetic energy of wind passing through the condenser's crisscrossed bars. A portion of this wind is caused by wind existing outside the car, and the main portion is caused by the kinetic energy originating from the car movement. In the absence of the wind turbine, the wind passing through the condenser's crisscrossed bars hits the middle part of the car's chassis and loses its energy. Thus, not only the wind turbine uses a portion of the kinetic energy losses of the car to produce electricity but also, since it has been embedded at the back of the condenser, it has no impact on the aerodynamic coefficient of the car, i.e., it does not produce any extra resistive force. When the car is parked, and there is no kinetic energy resulting from the car movement, a small flow of wind available outside the car is converted into electricity stored in the car's battery. To realize the proposed scheme, a 100-W wind turbine, a permanent-magnet synchronous generator coupled to the turbine, and a novel built hybrid power generation system combining the wind-driven generator's output power with that of the car's battery have been embedded in an EV having a total weight of 1855 kg. Experimental measurements conducted under realistic operation of the EV are given that prove the traveling range of the EV and the power efficiency of the EV's power supply are enhanced by, 6.4 km and 0.2% respectively, by recovering only a portion of the kinetic energy losses of the EV. These two benefits also prove the novelty and contributions of this work in successfully recovering a portion of the kinetic energy losses of a car by using a small wind turbine embedded in the car.