Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belagavi Karnataka

A Project Presentation
on
“DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SOLAR VEHICLE ”
by
ADITHYA H K (4MN16ME002)
SWAROOP K D (4MN16ME042)
THILAK B K (4MN16ME044)
MAHADEVA B R (4MN17ME404)
Under the Guidance of
T Venkate Gowda M.Tech., (Ph.D)

Associate Professor

Department of Mechanical Engineering Maharaja Institute

of Technology Thandavapura Mysuru-571302
 CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• LITERATURE SURVEY
• METHODOLOGY
• COMPONENTS
• COMPARITIVE STUDY
• WORK DONE
• ADVANTAGES
• CHALLENGES
• REFERENCE
 INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES

• It has fuel tank which supplies

gasoline to fuel engine.
• Engine turns a transmission
which turns to wheels
DRAWBACKS OF IC ENGINES
• Consume resource
• Heavy reliance on imports
• Creates smog in big cities
• Emits pollution in the air
• Petroleum is expensive

WHY SOLAR VEHICLE

• CLEAN AIR – zero emissions
• Solar Energy is readily available
• Oil independence
• Save gas = save money
• Low maintenance
 SOLAR VEHICLE
 Wheeled motor vehicle powered by electricity through
the use of solar energy, obtained by solar panel.

HISTORY OF SOLAR VEHICLE

 First Solar Vehicle(car) was invented in 1955 by William G
Cobb that was called Sun Mobile
 It had 12 PV cells and the size was about 12 inches
 TIMELINE OF SOLAR VEHICLES
 1954 First Silicon Solar Cell
 1955 Sun Mobile By William Cobb
 1964 The Satellite NIMBUS 1 was equipped with sun tracking
solar panels.
 1997 Hybrid Car was Invented
 2006 Ventury Astrolab launched at Paris Motor
 2007 PlanetSolar ,worlds largest solar powered ship
 2008 China’s “Caihong” UAV
 2010 Solar Impulse
 2019 Light year(car) prototype was launched
 LITERATURE SURVEY
WORK AUTHORS CONCLUSION
SOLAR AND Bhagyashree R. This paper gives a clear idea that solar
WIND Wadhai, and wind powered vehicle are more
POWERED Asmita S. Nagrare, effective than fuel vehicle.
HYBRID Manjushree D
VEHICLE
PROTOTYPE
SOLAR AND T.Vignesh, This hybrid topology shows excellent
WIND S.Sathishkuma, performance under varying load
POWERED D.Silambarasan power requirement, solar irradiation
ELECTRIC CAR and wind speeds.

DESIGN AND V.Naveen Prabhu, The fuel could be used very

FABRICATION N.Manigandan effectively and the city`s speed limit
OF SOLAR would be maintained to a great extent.
TRANSPORT The accidents could be
VEHICLE avoided.
 WORK AUTHORS CONCLUSION
SOLAR Yogesh Sunil Presented a paper on solar powered
POWERED CAR Wamborikar, Abhay vehicle. The renewable energy is
USING Sinha necessary for today’s world as in near
BRUSHLESS DC future the non-renewable sources that
HUB MOTOR we are using are going to get
WITH exhausted. The solar vehicle is a step
ADVANCED PIC in saving these non-renewable sources
MICROCONTOL of energy
LER
ADVANCED Vincent, Vineeth V and A three-input hybrid system for solar
HYBRID S. Kamalakkannan car is designed .
SYSTEM FOR
SOLAR CAR
 METHODOLOGY

In the presence of sunlight battery gets charged from solar panels

and thus the energy is transferred to batteries and which in turn is
transferred to motor.
COMPONENTS OF SOLAR VEHICLE

• SOLAR ARRAY
• CHARGE CONTROLLER
• BATTERY
• MOTOR
• THROTTLE
 SOLAR ARRAY

• Solar Array are made up of many solar cells.

• Solar Cell converts the solar energy into electric energy by

photovoltaic effect.
• There are now different types of solar panels available, namely,
(A)monocrystalline silicon, (B)polycrystalline silicon, and (C)Amorphous
Silicon ‘thin film’ modules.

(B)
(A)
(C)
 SELECTION OF SOLAR PANEL

• Mono crystalline and polycrystalline panels’ efficiency is very high but these are
much expensive.
• Less space of implementation and high power delivery required.
• In this circumstances considering the facts we have decided to use
polycrystalline, which will not be too costly but efficient.
• We can calculate our solar panel output this way: 5 hours x 290 watts (an
example wattage of a premium solar panel) = 1,450 watts-hours, or roughly 1.5
kilowatt-hours (kwh)
• We planned of using 140watt Solar panel of which 85 watt was to be mounted
on the roof of the auto rickshaw and remaining to be mounted on side and the
rear end.
• Panels were to be mounted and covered with glass slab for protection.
• Solar panel function is converting the incident solar energy into a certain quantity of the
electrical power . The solar PV array involves 3 panel module SPR-E19-320W of 19%
efficiency. Table shows the selected PV panel specifications.
• The dimensions of the selected PV panels are matched with the vehicle’s dimensions.
 CHARGE CONTROLLER
• The batteries are connected to a charge controller which will ensure healthy life

of the batteries by preventing it from over charging and over discharging.

• A critical factor here is that the charge controller will be available with an

additional input that can be used to charge the batteries from an AC power supply

(simply by plugging in).

• A single panel would need a controller of between 4 and 6 Amps rating, while

larger arrays may need controllers of 40 Amps or more..

• There are primarily two types of solar charge controllers available in the
market PWM(Pulse Width Modulated) and MPPT(Maximum power point
tracking)
• Solar cars typically use Maximum Power Point Trackers (MPPTs), but due to
the market limitations, the type of the selected battery charge controller is
from the category of Pulse Width Modulator (PWM) battery charger of rated
voltage 48 V, and maximum charging current of 45 A.
 BATTERY

• The batteries store energy from the solar array and make them available for
the motor’s use.
• Batteries that are commonly used in solar vehicle are Lead-acid batteries,
.
Li-ion batteries, Ni-MH batteries, Ni-Cd batteries, Flooded-cell batteries
and Gel-cell batteries
 BATTERY SELECTION
• For selecting a type of battery for a solar driven vehicle like ours, we always

have to concern about less expensive, comparatively light in weight and high

energy supply .

• Considering the economic factor and availability in our country we will be

using Lead acid batteries, which are being widely used as a solar system energy

storage device.

• Though these types of batteries release some hydrogen gas while charging and

needs some maintenance but still for large solar energy storage system lead

acid battery is very popular.

• In our project we use two 12v-120Ah lead acid batteries.

Battery charging time
• The charging time depends on the capacity of the battery bank and the level of the
provided current by the panels:

• Charging time = Battery capacity/ICharge

• The quantity of the harvested power from the PV array = 3 × 320 W = 960 W.
Maximum ICharge which can be delivered by PV array = P/V = 960/48 = 20 A. So,
the charging time = 200 Ah/20 A = 10 hours.

• From the above equations, the battery bank takes around 10 hours for full charge.
 MOTOR

• Motor uses energy to drive the wheels of vehicle.

• There are 2 main types of DC Motors used in Electric vehicles. One is

Brushed DC Motors and another is Brushless DC Motors (BLDC Motors).

• The brushed DC electric motor generates torque directly from DC power

supplied to the motor by using internal commutation, stationary magnets,

and rotating electrical magnets

• Brushless DC motors use a rotating permanent magnet or soft magnetic

core in the rotor, and stationary electrical magnets on the motor housing
 MOTOR SELECTION

• Among the two types of DC motor Brushless DC motor is most

suitable for us because of its long life span, almost zero maintenance
cost and high efficiency.
• Motor that we will be using in our project will be 1kw 60V, 23 A
Brushless DC motor.
 POWER CALCULATION
By considering the mechanical structure design (shape and mass) in order to have a
maximum speed limit of 100 km/h through reducing the aerodynamic effect, and
other related mechanical parameters as shown in Table , the required electrical
power can be calculated.

where P [W] is the required power for car moving,

• Fr [N] is the force of rolling resistance,
• FD [N] is the car drag force in,
• Vm [m/s] is the speed of the car,
• Crr is the rolling coefficient,
• m [kg] is the total mass of car including 2 passengers.
• The gravitational acceleration [m/s2] is represented by g, ρ [kg/m3] is the air
density, CD is the drag coefficient, and finally,
• A [m2] is the frontal area of the car.
 Parameter Value

Total mass (m) [kg] 500

Velocity (Vm) [km/h] 100

Rolling coefficient (Crr) 0.005

Earth gravity (g) [m/s2] 9.81

Air density (ρ) [kg/m3] 1.2

Drag coefficient (CD) 0.4

Frontal area (A) [m2] 2

Drive time
To determine the drive time, firstly, it is needed to determine the motor rated
current from eq:
 
P=I×V
 
Where P [W] is the power, I [A] is the current, and V [V] is the voltage, I =
P/V = 12,000/48 = 250 A
 
Drive time = Battery capacity/IMotor
where drive time = 200 Ah/250 A = 0.8 h = 48 min.
 THROTTLE
• Throttle allows us to drive the motor from zero speed to full speed
• The throttle converts DC voltage from battery to an alternating voltage
with variable amplitude and frequency that drives the hub motor at
different speeds
• This throttle is technically referred to as a Hall Effect type.

.
BLOCK DIAGRAM OF SOLAR VEHICLE

• The design includes PV array which serves as a renewable DC source, battery

charger which is involved for battery charging function, battery bank for solar

energy saving and serves as a stable supply for the two speed drives.

• The two rear wheels motor drives supply the rear motors separately for

vehicle motion.
 COMPARATIVE STUDY

Specifications of Traditional Auto Rickshaw-

- Rs.1.10 Lakh
Capital cost of Auto Rickshaw ( including insurance and
registration).
- Rs.73.55/litre
Petrol cost
Average mileage of each Auto Rickshaw when new ( A) - 20 to 30 km/litre

-No. of hours each Auto runs in total on an average (B) - 6hrs/day

mostly daylight hours

- 50 to 60 km/h 
-Average speed of an Auto (C)
-Total consumption of petrol (B) x (C) / (A) - 12litre/day
- 882.6Rs/day
-Total cost of Petrol for each Auto
Solar Rickshaw
-Approximate Capital Cost of Solar Rickshaw(High End) - Rs.2,00,000

-Avoided costs of fuel per solar rickshaw- - 882.6Rs/day

Total fuel cost avoided in one year through one solar Rickshaw - Rs.3,22,149
 WORK DONE

1. Initial ideation.

2. Preliminary data collection of the existing solar technology .

3. Assessment and locating suitable applications and niche areas for the

technology.

4. Comparing different applications zones and locating the most probable areas

where a Three wheeler vehicle with the respective technology will work.

5. Identifying the existing vehicles and their characteristics in these selected

scenarios for which the vehicle has to be designed.

6. Basic requirements and study.

 POSSIBLE APPLICATION AREAS

 Intercity public transport

 Inter Airport
 Inter campus-Academic, Industrial e.g. Infosys, Maruti
 Amusement parks
 Zoos
 City tours
 Surveillance
 Large span exhibition areas e.g. Dasara exhibition for specially challenged
and Aged people.
 ADVANTAGES

• Renewable Energy Source

• Low Maintenance Costs

• Eco-friendly and quiet

• Energy Availability
• No Fuel Costs
 CHALLENGES

• Solar Energy Storage Is Expensive

• Weather Issues & less efficiency

• Uses a Lot of Space

• Power varies with light intensity. Production is not uniform
throughout the day
• Affected by passing clouds

• Varies with season as sunlight varies with season

 REFERENCE

• Rattankumar, V., and N. P. Gopinath, Solar powered car using

Brushless DC hub motor with advanced PIC microcontoller,
Emerging Trends in Electrical Engineering and Energy Management
(ICETEEEM), 2012 International Conference on. IEEE, 2012.
• Vincent, Vineeth V., and S. Kamalakkannan, Advanced hybrid
system for solar car, Computation of Power, Energy, Information
and Communication (ICCPEIC), 2013 International Conference on.
IEEE, 2013
• Book -"Renewable Energy Technologies” a practical guide for
beginners by Chetan Singh Solanki.
• Yogesh Sunil Wamborikar, Abhay Sinhav Solar Powered Car using
Brushless DC Hub Motor with Advanced PIC Microcontroller.