Graduation Project - Final Version - Mus'Ab Samarah

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar
Isam
Akil
Samara
Qatar University
College of Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering
A Graduation Project Report

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar Car
By
Ahmed Issam
Mahmoud Akil
Musab Samara
Supervised By:
Prof. MohieddineBenammar
Dr.FaridTouati
May 2013
1|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
-Student Statement-
We, the undersigned students, confirm that the work submitted in this project report is entirely
our own and has not been copied from any other source. Any material that has been used from
other sources has been properly cited and acknowledged in the report.
We are fully aware that any copying or improper citation of references/sources used in this report
will be considered plagiarism, which is a clear violation of the Code of Ethics of Qatar
University.
In addition, we have read and understood the legal consequences of committing any violation of
the Qatar Universitys Code of Ethics.
Student Name
1 MusabFawzi Samara
2 Ahmed Isam
3 Mahmoud Nabil Akil
Student ID
200600742
200501566
200801939
Signature
Date
30-5-2013
30-5-2013
30-5-2013
2|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to take the opportunity to thank out supervisors Prof.Mohieddine Benammar
and Dr.Farid Touati for their continuous supervision and commitment. Our acknowledgments
and appreciation go to Dr. Ahmed Massoud and Prof. Lazhar Ben-Brahim for their support.
We dont forget our appreciation and special thanks for our families and friends who
supported us throughout the semester .
We would like also to thank Eng.Mazen Faiterand Eng. Ayman Ammar for their technical
support and commitment.
A special thanks goes tothe mechanical team mates, goes to my team mates , Nour Allam
, Ajad Hussain and Abdulkader Sakil for their valuable help in assembling, designing and
implementing all the mechanical components of the car .
We would like also to expand our thanks and appreciation to Shell Oil Company and Qatar
National Research Fund (QNRF) for funding our project via the Undergraduate Research
Experience Program(UREP 12-065-2-028 ).
Ahmed Issam
Mahmoud Akil
Musab Samara
3|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this project is to build an efficient third generation zero-CO2 footprint
solar vehicle and participate in the 2013 Shell Eco-marathon Competition. Hence, this project is
dedicated to improve power efficiency of the Gernas I and Gernas II cars and to obtain a higher
rank in the Battery Electric Prototype category in the competition. By following up the rules
and regulations of the Shell Eco-marathon competition .The need for renewable energy was the
main motivation for this project. This project discusses how important is the renewable energy in
modern cars and that it can make a huge impact in the cars technology. In this report the solar
system will be the source of energy which will be discussed in details with the Matlab/Simulink
simulation. In order to extract the maximum power from the PV modules the boost, DC-DC
converters will be used along with the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) Algorithm to
achieve that aim and it will also be simulated and tested by PROTEUs simulation and Multisim
software.
4|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ...........................................................................................................3
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................4
TABLE OF CONTENT ..........................................................................................................5
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................8
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................ 11
CHAPTER I:INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 12
1.1Motivation: ....................................................................................................................... 12
1.2 General Problem Statement: ............................................................................................ 13
1.3 Project Objective: ............................................................................................................ 14
1.4
Design Constraints: ..................................................................................................... 14
CHAPTER 2: SYSTEMOVERVIEW ....................................................................................... 16

2.1 Introduction: .................................................................................................................... 16
2.2 Mechanical Design: ......................................................................................................... 16
2.2.1 Gernas I Car Design:................................................................................................. 16
2.2.2 Gernas III Car Design (Improvements) : ................................................................... 17
2.2.2.1 Body Shell: ............................................................................................................ 17
2.2.2.2Chassis and Steering: .......................................................................................... 18
2.2.2.3 Braking System: ................................................................................................. 19
2.3 Energy System ................................................................................................................ 21
2.3.1 Battery: ..................................................................................................................... 22
2.3.2 Solar Arrays:............................................................................................................. 23
2.3.3 Boost Converter: ....................................................................................................... 24
CHAPTER 3: ENERGY SYSTEM ........................................................................................... 25
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 25
3.2 Motor .............................................................................................................................. 26
3.3 Battery: ........................................................................................................................... 29
3.3.1Battery management system: ..................................................................................... 30
3.4 Photovoltaic power frame ................................................................................................ 33
5|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
3.5 Photovoltaic cells modeling ............................................................................................. 38

CHAPTER 4:DESIGN OF DC-DC CONVERTER ................................................................... 41
4.1 DC-DC converter ............................................................................................................ 41
4.1.1 Background information: .......................................................................................... 41
4.1.2 Analysis and Calculations: ........................................................................................ 42
4.1.2.1 The Values of Lmin and Cmin : ......................................................................... 42
4.1.2.2 Proof equations (4.1) and (4.2): .......................................................................... 43
4.1.3 Boost converter simulation using MULTISIM .......................................................... 44
4.1.3.1Multisim-Simulation : ......................................................................................... 44
4.1.3.2 Schematic circuit:............................................................................................... 44
4.1.3.3Design components: ............................................................................................ 45
4.1.3.4Switchtype : ........................................................................................................ 45
4.1.3.4Results : .............................................................................................................. 46
CHAPTER 5: ENERGIZING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION , TESTING and VALIDATION
................................................................................................................................................. 47
5.1 Practical implementation of the electrical system ............................................................. 47
5.1.1 First stage of implementation: ................................................................................... 47
5.1.2. Second Stage of implementation: ............................................................................. 49
5.1.3
5.2
The Third stage of implementation (PCB Stage): ................................................. 50
Testing : ...................................................................................................................... 52
5.2.1 Designed boost converter VS Commercial boost converter: ...................................... 55

5.3
Validations: ................................................................................................................. 57
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. 67

6.1Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 67
6.2 Future work and Recommendations ................................................................................. 67
REFFRENCES.......................................................................................................................... 68
Appendix .................................................................................................................................. 70
Appendix A............................................................................................................................... 70
Appendix B ............................................................................................................................... 74
Appendix C ............................................................................................................................... 75
Appendix D............................................................................................................................... 76
6|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix E ............................................................................................................................... 77
Appendix F ............................................................................................................................... 79
7|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure1. 1Energy demands between 1970 and 2040 [1] ............................................................. 12
Figure 2.1 The Gernas I solar car [3] ......................................................................................... 17

Figure 2.2Gernas III Body Shell. ............................................................................................... 18
Figure 2.3The Steering in Gernas II and the braking systems . ................................................... 19
Figure 2.4The hand break for front wheel in Gernas II .............................................................. 20
Figure 2.5The Wheel used in GernasII . .................................................................................... 20
Figure 2. 6 The oveall system components ................................................................................ 21
Figure 2. 7 TURNIGYNANO-TECH lithium polymer battery................................................... 22
Figure 2.8Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur [18] ................................................... 23
Figure 2.9The Solar Cells .......................................................................................................... 23
Figure 2. 10 The DC-DC boost converter topology.................................................................... 24
Figure 3. 1 BMS circuit diagram ............................................................................................... 33

Figure 3. 2 Perturb and Observe algorithm ................................................................................ 35
Figure 3. 3 MPPT circuit diagram ............................................................................................. 37
Figure 3. 4 The generated PWM signal from the MCU .............................................................. 37
Figure 3. 5 MPPT charging current ........................................................................................... 38
Figure 3. 6 PV Panel system ...................................................................................................... 39
Figure 3. 7 I-V Curve with different irradiations........................................................................ 40
Figure 3. 8 P-V curve with different irradiations........................................................................ 40
Figure4. 1Schematic circuit design using Multisim software ..................................................... 44

Figure4. 2PWM generated by using Bipolar voltage source ....................................................... 46
Figure 5.1practical implementation ........................................................................................... 47

Figure 5.2. PWM signal from the Microcontroller .................................................................... 48
Figure 5.3 1) The Upper level of the designed prototype boost converter is the boost converter
circuit. 2) The lower level of the prototype is the microcontroller circuit. .................................. 49
8|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 5.4 Printed circuit board abbreviated PCB ...................................................................... 50

Figure 5.5control circuit for MPPT PCB ................................................................................... 51
Figure 5.6Power circuit of the MPT system PCB ...................................................................... 51
Figure 5.7phase two of testing ................................................................................................... 52
Figure 5.8Phase two of the testing process ................................................................................ 53
Figure 5.9phase two results ....................................................................................................... 53
Figure 5.10 Testing the finalized version of the system ............................................................. 54
Figure 5.11 (1) The first reading shows the output current from the charging system where it has
been taken nearly at 3 pm. (2) The 2nd reading shows different output and input currents were the
time was nearly 4 pm. (3) The 3rd and the last reading shows an output and input currents taken
at nearly 5 pm. .......................................................................................................................... 55
Figure 5. 12 the driver and the team will be provided by the walkie talkies................................ 58
Figure 5. 13 The Horn is installed and positioned on front of the car, so the sound of it will be
very clear and load for the others in case of overtaking or for different needing. ........................ 58
Figure 5. 14 The car is provided by two side mirrors to enable the driver to have a full vision on
the road and in case of overtaking as well .................................................................................. 59
Figure 5. 15 Braking system is provided in the car to allow the driver to stop or to decelerate in
any needed case ........................................................................................................................ 59
Figure 5. 16 The car was weighted to be 36 kg (without the driver) ........................................... 59
Figure 5. 17 Helmets are available for both the driver and the reserve driver. ............................ 60
Figure 5. 18ventilation system is provided in the car to have an comfort area for the driver ....... 60
Figure 5. 19 The suite and the cloves for the driver for the safety of the driver .......................... 61
Figure 5. 20 The car is provide with a fire extinguisher which is usable and valid to use by the
driver in case of emergency. ...................................................................................................... 61
Figure 5. 21 Seat built is provide with the seat to be used by the driver while racing ................. 61
Figure 5. 22 1) 2 Wheels in front side. 2) 1 Wheel in Back side ................................................. 62
Figure 5. 23 The car was tested many times and in different situations in order to have the best
stability of the body in order to get the best body stability on the road. ...................................... 62
Figure 5. 24. Energy compartment that contains the Battery, Motor and the charger is very easy
to access by a hard doormade from plastic sheet. ....................................................................... 63
Figure 5. 25 the Chassis of the car body which is made of Aluminum bars and coulumns and it
is very hard and strong enough to protect the driver in case of accidents.................................... 63
Figure 5.26 The Electrical Energy system compartment, Includes The Motor, Batteries , charger
and the electrical conections ...................................................................................................... 63
Figure 5. 27 A door made of a plastic transparent sheet with a dimensions of ( X ) makes the way
easy for the driver to access and exit from the vehicle in both normal and emergency situations 64
Figure 5. 28 Two bottoms for emergency shut-down which can be used by the driver or any
assistor in the emergency cases ................................................................................................. 64
Figure 5. 29The car is provided by a two separated braking systems 1) Braking system for the
rear wheels and 2) another braking system for the front wheel ................................................... 65
9|Page
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 5. 30 The out put voltage is within the margin given by the rules of the competition, the
system output is tested to be about 24v ...................................................................................... 65
Figure 5. 31 The Battery used in the system of the car energizing is Lithium-polymer based with
a BMS system provided in case of emergency . ......................................................................... 65
Figure 5. 32 The solar panels used in the car to recharge the batteries are within the size of 0.17
m2 ............................................................................................................................................. 65
Figure 5. 33 One motor of 22V rated voltage has been used in the car ....................................... 66
10 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2. 1 Gernas I VS Gernas III specifications ....................................................................... 21
Table 3.1Motor specification ..................................................................................................... 28

Table 3.2Battery Specifications ................................................................................................. 29
Table 3.3CKSR 50NP specifications ......................................................................................... 31
Table 3.4LM35 specifications ................................................................................................... 31
Table 3.5PV panel specification ................................................................................................ 34
Table4. 1 Proof of the equations (4.1) and (4.2) ......................................................................... 43
Table 5.1Comparison between The designed boost converter and a commercial boot converter
product ...................................................................................................................................... 56
Table 5.2Comparing the Shell Eco-Marathon rules to the designed car ( Gernas 2 ) [15] ........... 57
11 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
CHAPTER I:INTRODUCTION
1.1Motivation:
There are different significant aims that make the use of renewable energy for different
applications a very important of our life and future. Everyone should invest in the renewable
energy field since it is cleaner, healthier, environmentally friendly and it is renewable
.Renewable energy is playing a major role these days and it is trending among all of other fossil
fuel sources as can be seen in figure 1 which shows that in the next coming years up to 2040
renewable energy will gain shares and will be one of the most energy sources used compared to
other energy sources.
Figure1. 1Energy demands between 1970 and 2040 [1]
Hence, we have been motivated to work on an application that mainly uses one of the renewable
energy sources which is solar energy. This graduation project aims to contribute to the strategic
goal of participations of the department of Electrical Engineering in the shell Eco-Marathon
competition.
Ultimately, the reason that motivate us to work hard on this project is the theme of the
competition itself. The goal of the Shell Eco-marathon competition is to build the most energy
12 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
efficient environmentally friendly prototype vehicle possible. Our ability to participate in such a
competition, and contribute in developing, designing, building and optimizing the future
environmentally friendly vehicle was the biggest motivation to achieve this project.The project
will be mainly a continuation development of previous Gernas I solar car. At the end of this
project, we wouldve our energy energy-efficient green car.
1.2 General Problem Statement:

Shell Eco marathon competition started in 1939 when some employees of Shell Company in the
USA had created a friendly wager which could move to the furthest distance using the same
amount of fuel[2].After that it has been expanded to other countries in different continents .
Starting byAmerica, Europe and then Asia by adding more energy types such as solar electric
cars and biofuel cars.
Shell-Eco-marathon is a unique competition that encourages students to design, build and drive
the most energy-efficient car. There are about three events around the world where hundreds of
team participate in this competition. The goal of the competition is just simple, each team will
design a car that will travel the furthest on the least amount of energy .The Eco-Marathon is held
around the world with events in Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Japan,Malaysiaand the
USA. [2]
Each years competition Shell Company provides participants with publications of all rules and
regulations that should be followed in order to be allowed to be in the competition. Every design
constraint should be referred to these rules before any implementing take place. For more
information about rules and regulations of Shell Eco marathon competition, you can refer to
appendix A.
Different vehicle design groups are available for Shell Eco marathon competition such General
design group,Urbanconcept Group and prototype group . We have been enrolled in the prototype
group design . Where we have to design and implementa second generation solar powered car by
improving the first-generation solar called GernasI.Improving the cars power efficiency and
making it lighter in weight are one of our challenges in this project. Thus, the car will use solar
13 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
cells to charge the batteries that will power the motor and run the car. The car should be ready
for shipping to Malaysia by 3rd of June, 2013 in order to participate in the Shell Eco Marathon
competition in July, 2013.
1.3 Project Objective:

This main purpose of this project is to design a solar powered car that shall participate
in the Shell Eco-marathon Asia , July
2013.Our main tasks in this project is rounded
by the designing and implementing the power generation system for the car .Where
other three students of electrical engineering will take the mechanical design in
consideration .
1.4
Design Constraints:
The following constrains are based on the shell Eco-Marathon rules and limitations and to
another internal constrains.
The total surface area of solar cells will be restricted to 0.17 2
The maximum voltage on the car shall not go beyond 48 Volts nominal and 60 Volts
maximum, this includes batteries, super capacitors and solar cells .
The electrical system of the car should be isolated so that there must be a key in order to
be immediately turn system off in case of danger .
This car will pass several safety and technical performance tests, Hence, It should be
ready to pass all this tests successfully.
The maximum vehicle weight, without the Driver is 140 kg.
Vehicles must be equipped with two independently activated brakes or braking systems.
There are two 12 V batteries allowed .One should be equipped for the horn and the other
one to power all other electrical components such as motor .
Only one battery should power the electric motor without any combinations with other
components .This will add a constraint on the weight of the car and other components .
The current relay in the Battery Management System will trip once the value of the
current detected exceeds the 80 % of the battery discharge rate.
The race should be completed within specified time, maximum :25 minutes which will
affect the power output .
14 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
All Batteries must be placed outside the drivers compartment behind the bulkhead and
securely mounted.
The time limitation was considered as one of the most important factors which was taken
into consideration to have the project done in the specified time and to have the car
shipped in the specified time in order to follow the rules which states that the car have to
be shipped before the competition by the beginning of June.
One of the internal constrains that we faced on this project is to create the PCBs of the
power electronics part of the project where the designed boost converter was done
manually and homemade which is much more difficult than using the automatic machine
to have a double PCB sides which also considered as one of the most important
constrains in the project.
15 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
CHAPTER 2: SYSTEMOVERVIEW
2.1 Introduction:
The purpose of this chapter to get an overview of the system that we had designed throughout
our academic year with help of the mechanical team . This includes all the improvements that
have been made compared to Gernas I and Gernas II cars. This will be explained briefly taking in
consideration the mechanical design, energy system and the overall of body shell of the car.
Major part of this project contains designing mechanical components such as the steering system,
braking system and last the frame of the vehicle which will be the chassis. However, our main
focus was on the energy system which will be explained briefly in the following sections. In fact,
our project is chosen based on the a prototype group which means the vehicle has to be designed
and implemented using the best available components to insure an efficient charging of cars
battery through the MPPT and methods that shall meet the Shell Eco marathon rules and
regulations. In the following sections, we are going to present an overview of the mechanical and
electrical systems of Gernas III
2.2 Mechanical Design:

2.2.1 Gernas I Car Design:
In 2010,Gernas I team which consists of three electrical students have designed and built a
prototype car. Their design was built to be solar powered car using an electric brushless dcmotor
to be ready to participate in Shell Eco marathon 2010 in Germany. The vehicle has six main
components: body shell, chassis, steering/wheel system, braking system, wheels, and energy
System.
Figure 2.1 shows the body shell of the prototype vehicle in which the Gernas I team has
designed. In building the body shell, carbon fiberwas used .Next, .Gernas I chose a metal frame
for chassis because it makes it safer for the driver according to their design . The Gernas I car
features a wheel arrangement of two wheels at the front and one in the rear .Moreover, toimprove
the aerodynamics, Gernas I team has placed the rear wheel inside of the shell, therefore this may
reduce the drag created by the wheel. The steering system was designed based on an ordinary
wheel steering as shown in figure 2.1. In fact, the wheels were brought from a bicycle and came
16 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
with two foot braking; one for the rear wheel and one for the front wheels. Moreover, It is good
to mention that Gernas I vehicle was designed to have a gear with two stages .For the solar panels
,they had decided to choose a mono-crystalline silicon cells named as 100 & 80Watts semi-flexible
Solar Panel for 12V, from Sunflex company[3].
Figure 2.1 The Gernas I solar car [3]
Speaking about the battery specification, the high capacity Lithium-Polymer Battery rated as
36V/16AH was used as power storage component in the car. Its weight was more than 4 kg
.Furthermore; they used a brushless DC motor connected to drive the rear wheel.
2.2.2 Gernas III Car Design (Improvements) :
Although the Gernas I teams design was fairly a good design. A lot of improvements can be
done to have a competitive car that can challenger all other competitors in the Shell Eco
Marathon competition. These improvements are based on weight, shell weight, and type of frame
used in the chassis, and the efficiency of the energy system. In this section, all the major
improvements that were done on Gernas I will be mentioned in terms of body shell, chassis,
steering and braking system.
2.2.2.1 Body Shell:
Figure 2.2 shows the body shell of the prototype vehicle in which we designed for Gernas III
vehicle. In building the body shell, polycarbonate plastic was used to shape the vehicle shell.
Polycarbonate plastic has great features such as it is very lightweight compared to other material
choices, It does not conduct electricity and makes a great insulation ,It is easy to work with via
17 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
cutting , drilling and It is transparent which gives a great vision for the driver [4]. The strength
of the material is not very important because the vehicle will not be used with any big loads.
Figure 2.2Gernas III Body Shell.
2.2.2.2Chassis and Steering:

The frame of the chassis used in Gernas III vehicle was made of Aluminum material. Aluminum
frame. The aim of using the aluminum material is that it is lighter than steel and cheaper. The
great benefits of this Aluminum structure are combined by its strength to tolerate greater crashes
and it is great to mention that it is easy to fabricate.
As shown figure 2.3 the steering has been replaced with aluminum one , instead of the steel that
was used in Gernas I . We can notice the difference between the two types of steering .In Gernas
I ,they used a wheel driving steering ,on the other hand ,we are using a light Aluminum bike
steering which gives the driver the ability to control and drive safely without any troubles on the
track .
18 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 2.3The Steering in Gernas II and the braking systems .
2.2.2.3 Braking System:

In the vehicle that was designed by the mechanical team, there are two independently brakes.
Where each brake consisting of a single command control. It works in a way such that one brake
must operate front wheels and the other one is responsible for the rear wheels. Having the
breaking system embedded with the steering will allow the driver to use the brake with any
trouble or a need to remove his hands from the steering. It is important to mention that braking
systems will be inspected for effectiveness by assigning the vehicle on an incline with a 20 %
slope according to Shell Eco Marathon constraints.
Finally , the gear that have been placed in our vehicle was based on slightly improving velocity
ratio and reducing the energy consumption by reducing the amount of revolutions that the
brushless DC electric motor has to rotate in order to generate enough torque to move the vehicle
at an optimum speed. This was verified by testing the car where we had a maximum speed of
32km/hr . Figure 2.5 shows the front wheel of Gernas III which is approximately the same used
for GernasI .
19 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 2.4The hand break for front wheel in Gernas II
Figure 2.5The Wheel used in GernasII .
20 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Comparing Gernas I and Gernas II, the following table 2.1 will show the main differences
between the two cars :
Weight
Chassis
Braking system
Steering system
Motor
Battery
Gernas I
50 kg
Metal
Foot braking system
Steering wheel
2000 6000 rpm
Lithium-polymer (36V/16AH)
Gear box
Not Applicable
Gernas III
36 kg
Alamunium
Hand braking system
Bicycle steering
189 rpm
Lithium-polymer
(22.2V/5000mAH)
Applicable
Table 2. 1 Gernas I VS Gernas III specifications
2.3 Energy System

Figure 2.6 shows that our overall system contains of different major stages of implementing for
the energy system .It starts by the solar panels which is basically designed to allow the solar
radiation energy goes in and recharge the battery once it got empty . It is considered as the main
unit of the system is the solar cell. Followed by a MPPT that shall be used for delivering the
energy from the solar cells to the batteries. This action will be accomplished with the support of
a Maximum Power Point Tracker algorithm through generation of microcontrollers PWM.
Furthermore, at the beginning of the race the battery will be fully charged and the solar cells will
recharge the battery via the MPPT . Hence we got the system working together which will makes
the motor works accordingly. In the following sections, the system will be describes by the
design of each block in the figure (2.6).
Figure 2. 6 The oveall system components
21 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
2.3.1 Battery:
Li-Po batteries are one of the most well-known types of rechargeable batteries that are capable to
work with planes, radio-controller and helicopters. Here are some of the advantages of the Li-Po
batteries:
Li-Po batteries are light weight and can be made in almost any shape and size.
They have large capacities, meaning they hold lots of power in a small package.
They have high discharge rates to power the most demanding electric motors.
They provide high energy storage to weight ratios in an endless variety of shapes and
sizes.[5]
The battery is an important component of our car power generation system. Generally, batteries
are classified based on their weight, dimensions, and weight and amp hours. According to Shell
Eco-Marathon rules, the battery that was selected to our power generation system will have a
voltage value of 22.2 V. In our design , we assured that our battery will kept fully charged until
the car covers around 11.2 km of the competition circuit by going in four laps of 2.8 km each of
the Sepang International circuit as shown in figure 2.8.
In this project, we have selected TURNIGYnano-tech lithium polymer battery which is built with
anLiConano-technology substrate complex greatly improving power transfer making the
oxidation/reduction reaction more efficient, this helps electrons pass more freely from anode to
cathode with less internal impedance.
Figure 2. 7 TURNIGYNANO-TECH lithium polymer battery
22 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 2.8Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur [18]
2.3.2 Solar Arrays:

The transforming of radiations of the sun into electrical energy are done by the solar array
.Hence, it is a significant component in the solar car. It consists of several solar cells which are
arranged to provide an output voltage or power to recharge the battery of the solar car. Solar
array system is designed to allow the solar radiation energy goes in and generate electrical power
that will recharge the battery once it got empty .The main unit of the system is the solar cell.
There are two configurations for the solar array, either, parallel or series configuration of solar
cells. Figure 2.9 explains the configurations we set in our design which is in series.
Figure 2.9The Solar Cells
23 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
2.3.3 Boost Converter:

The DC-DC boost converter along with the maximum power point tracking algorithm will be
able to extract the maximum power from the PV panels. This topology of DC-DC boost
converter is summarized in the figure 2.10 .
Diode
SolarArray
C
Figure 2. 10 The DC-DC boost converter topology.
24 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
CHAPTER 3: ENERGY SYSTEM DESIGN

3.1 Introduction
The energy system of this car mainly depends on converting the photons energy
that hits the surface of the PV panels into electric energy, and this particular job is achieved by
the solar panels that will charge the batteries, which will power the motor of the car on the other
side, because with the nonlinear characteristic of the PV panels we cannot connect the PV panels
directly to the load, this is will be inefficient way, even if there a PV array that its voltage
matches with the rated voltage of the motor, in addition to that the battery existence is highly
required or otherwise the car cannot be driven at night, and even if the car is not moving the
battery will store the converted energy for later use. Furthermore PV panels main problem for
such a dynamic application is that the power from the PV panel might be zero sometimes due to
the shading effect, in this case the battery will deliver the required energy.
Batteries technology plays a vital role in the electric cars futures, because the energy
system of these kinds of cars mainly depends on the batteries, because the main issues that keep
blocking the development of the electric car is the batteries, and the development the batteries
technologies will lead to a great development in the electric car field, because the main concerns
is the how much mileage the car can do with installed battery in the car and how much time does
the battery need to get from being fully drained to full charged, in addition to that the energy
density of the battery itself is a big headache, which is the energy per unit mass, furthermore the
life cycle of the battery itself.
Motor is also a very important component in the system, because in fact the whole design
of the energy system will depend upon the selection of the type of the electric motor and the
rating of the motor. Electric motors are widely known by their high efficiency compared to
internal combustion engines, and it does not require frequent maintains like the internal
combustion engine. However there is server types of electric motors each type has its own
advantages and disadvantages, and each type fit for a certain application, in the this application
brushless DC motor fit perfectly, which is also known as the electrically commuted motor, its
asynchrouns motor that is powered by DC source via an internal inverter which is impeded
inside the motor, the main aim of the inverter is to convert the DC signal to an AC signal.
25 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
3.2 Motor
In the design process its always advisable to start from the load till the source, in order to
create harmony between the energy system component, to avoid the failure of the system in the
future and to avoid to overloading your component above the withstand point of the component
that its have been designed for. In this case the determination of the torque load of the car is
required in order to determine the motor that should be used, to make sure that this motor can
handle such a weight , the motor can accelerate smoothly without any problem and the motor
shaft wont broke due to overloading. On the other hand the circular motion of the motor is
usually governed by the following equation
=
(3.1)
Where,
: Is the motor torque (newton Meter).
: Is the load torque.
Is the equivalent inertia of the motor plus the load.
: is the angular speed (radian per second).
As the equation states that in the transient there will be acceleration, this acceleration
amount will depend upon the inertia of both the motor and the load until the motor torque equals
the load torque then the motor will stop accelerating and the system will enter the steady state
interval, in the Shell Eco-Marathon acceleration is not a big issue, but the power consumption is
the biggest issue, which is measuring the power from getting from my PV panels and the power
that the motor is using, however the rules stated that there is a fixed time if the car should cross
the finish line within this time, but this can be achieved using gears in order to get higher top
speeds, and this configuration will give the advantage of getting high torque from the motor
since its running in low speeds if we used higher gear ratio according to the following equation
= (WATT)
(3.2)
26 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Where,
P: is the output power from the motor
Computing the torque load for the car will lead to the prober selection for the motor, in
order to calculate the load torque of the car requires calculating some factors that will influence
the performance of the car during the race like the rolling resistance, grade resistance and the
acceleration force.
In the computation of the rolling resistance force of the car, first the rolling resistance
which is the constant that depends on the surface friction in 0.017 for poor asphalt surface, also
the weight of the car plus the driver must be determined.
= ()[6]
(3.3)
Where
RR rolling resistance of the vehicle (lb)
vw the vehicle plus the driver weigh (lb)
R rolling resistance coefficient (dimensionless)
= 198.416 0.017 = 3.373
The grade resistance (GR) is the amount of force that the vehicle needs in order to be
able to move on a road with a slope[6].for the incline angle or the slope of the road the maximum
angle found after studying the race track in 3D is 3 degree.
= sin
()[6]
(3.4)
Where
GR is the grade resistance
Alpha is the incline angle (degree)
= 198.416 sin 3 = 10.2930
The acceleration force is the amount of force that the vehicle needs to accelerate from
stop to maximum speed in a certain time.
27 | P a g e
32
Isam
Akil
Samara
()[6] (3.5)
Where
Vmax is the maximum speed (ft/second)
Ta is the required time to accelerate to the maximum speed
41.010
= 198.416 (32300 )=0.8476lb

= + + (. )
(3.6)
= (0.847 + 10.293 + 3.373) 14.685 = 202. = 22.1.

According to the previously mentioned facts the selection was a 23556 MN.M BLCD
motor that has the following specifications and has a rated torque which more than the torque
load of the car.
Table 3.1Motor specification
Rated voltage
24 volts
Rated current
17 AMPS
Rated power
210 watt
Rated speed
189 rpm
The manufacturer provided the user with some important data in a form of table in order
for the user to see the performance of the motor under different conditions, and here are the plots
of these data.
28 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
3.3 Battery:
The battery element is a very important element in this energy system, since PV panels
cannot always supply the power to the system due the shading effect or the weather is cloudy,
according to that the battery should be fully charged in case the PV panels wont charge it during
the race, and it should contain an enough energy inside it to make the car cross the finish line.in
the other hand the motor inside the system might require a burst of energy, which means that the
energy inside the battery might be extracted in hurry, according to that a high discharge rate
battery is required, because drawing a high current from some batteries might cause an
overheating for some batteries, also how much energy is contained in one unit mass is important
since this will cause an overweight in the car, which will lead to more power consumption, since
the aim of the rice is measure how much energy the PV panel delivered and how much energy
the motor consumed.
The crown goes to the lithium polymer batteries abbreviated li-pol technology among the
other technologies, for a lot of reasons like the watt-hour per kilogram, which means there is a
lot energy stored in a small weight, the high discharge rate, its safe unlike lithium ion batteries
when it contains a lot of energy it might explode, however li-pol might explode if it overcharged,
and it has a greater life cycle degradation rate compared to lithium ion batteries. The voltage of a
single li-pol cell in the range 2.7 volt to 4.23 volts, 4.23 volts will indicate that the battery is fully
charged, and it should be disconnected from the load if the voltage drops to 2.7 volts, because it
cannot be recharged again. However our selected battery has the following specifications.
Table 3.2Battery Specifications
Capacity
5000mAH
Voltage
22.2 V
Discharge rate
35C constant 70C burst
Weight
786 g
29 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
154x50x49mm
Dimensions
As the motor manufacturer implied that the motor will consume a maximum current of
16A, and the battery can deliver a current of 175 A for an hour ten it will be fully drained, and by
consuming a current of 16 the battery can last for 10 hours. As the C rate is a measure of the rate
at which the battery is discharged relative to its maximum capacity.
=
AMPmaxis the maximum current that can be drawn from the battery within hour then it will be
fully drained.
3.3.1Battery Management System:
In order to protect the driver of the car and to prevent the battery from exploding a
battery management system BMS is highly required in this system, and also a critical
requirement for Shell Eco Marathon completion. The BMS mainly consist of over under voltage
protection, overcurrent protection and discharge temperature. Overcharge protection is not
needed because the maximum current the PV panel can supply is 0.6 A which is less than the
number that most manufacturers specify 0.5C [6].
The overcurrent protection will make sure that the discharge rate of the battery is less
than 80% of its rated discharge rate as recommended by the manufacturer to increase the life
time of the module. In order to achieve that the presence of current sensor is necessary in order
to monitor the current of the battery along with comparator, so the comparator changes its state
from low to high as the current exceeds 80%. The current transducer CKSR 50NP is a good fit
for this system because it has a measuring range of -150 to 150A and it should be operated from
a 5 volts source, and has the following parameters.
30 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Table 3.3CKSR 50NP specifications
Current measuring range
150 A
Supply voltage
5V
Sensitivity
12.5 mV/A
Electric offset voltage
0.7mv
The under voltage protection will make sure that if the terminal voltage of the battery
drops below the cut-off voltage then the circuit should trip, because if the battery is drained
further it wont accept recharging again, for this purpose a voltage divider is used in order to
sense the voltage of the battery, which is connected to a comparator.
The discharge temperature protection will make sure that the battery will work under the
rated temperature; if the temperature is higher the circuit should trip. For this task also a
temperature sensor with a comparator will be used. The temperature sensor LM35 has the
following specification.
Table 3.4LM35 specifications
Precision Centigrade Temperature Sensors
Low impedance output
0.1for 1 mA load
Low self-heating
0.08 C
in still air
Rated for full
55 to +150 C
range
The output of all of the above circuits will be connect to an AND gate which controls the
gate of a MOSFET transistor, which will energize the coil of the relay if one of these circuits
31 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
detect a violations in the rated values. As figure 3.1 shows the circuit diagram of the BMS the
output of each protection circuit is connected to an AND gate which controls the gate of the
MOSFET. If the output of the AND gate is high then the MOSFET will conduct and the relay
will trip the motor. Furthermore the positive terminal of the battery is connected to the normally
connected terminal of the relay (NC) and a small light emitting diode (LED) with a small current
limiter resistor are connected in series with the normally open terminal of the relay (NO) in order
to indicate that the relay trips. The relay in order to operate its needs a 12 voltage source, and by
measuring the coil resistance will be able how much current the relay needs in order to energize
the coil and trip. The freewheeling diode is needed to protect the MOSFET and its impeded with
the MOSFETs internal architecture.
The BMS board is supplied by a 12 voltage battery according to the Shell Eco-Marathon
completion rules, which is connected to a 5 volt regulator in order to operate the analogue and
the digital IC,s in the board, and they are three potentiometer in order to adjust the threshold
values of the current ,temperature and voltage of the battery. And the used OP-Amps care single
supply OP-AMPS, which requires only 5 Volts as a supply voltage.
32 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 3. 1 BMS circuit diagram
3.4 Photovoltaic power frame

Photovoltaic cells or solar cells are electric devices that convert the energy contained in
the light into electric energy [6], the used photovoltaic array will charge the battery during the
race, according to the rules the PV system should occupy an area of a 0.17 m2(10 cells of 5*5
inches), the selection was a two modules which are connected in series in order to rise the
33 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
voltage to be able to charge the battery with a good amount of current even if the panels are
partially shaded. Table 3.5 shows the panels specification.
Table 3.5PV panel specification
Open circuit voltage
21.24 V
Short circuit current
0.61 A
Maximum power current
0.56A
Maximum power voltage
18 V
Maximum power
10 W
Connecting two of these PV panels in series will give the system a power of 18 watts and
a voltage of 36 volts. Furthermore connecting them in parallel will assure that the maximum
power voltage of the panels will be slightly higher than the battery voltage, which will allow the
current transfer from the panels to the battery, but if the connection was made in series then the
voltage of the maximum power will be for sure less than or equal to 18 volt, which is less than
the battery voltage and in this case no power transfer will occur from the panels to the battery.
Since the power obtained from the PV system depends on the irradiance, temperature and
the current drawn from the cells. Maximum power point tracker MPPT is needed in order to
extract the maximum power from the PV panel. There are many techniques for maximum power
point tracker, Perturb and observe technique is mainly used for dynamic system, but this
technique require microcontroller in order to implement it. Figure 3.2 shows the maximum
power point tracking algorithm.
34 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 3. 2 Perturb and Observe algorithm
The microcontroller will be used along with the DC-DC converter in order to implement
the maximum power point tracker; by changing the duty cycle of the boost converter the voltage
and the current of the PV array will be varied, sensing the variation in the current and the voltage
PV panel with the microcontroller will enable the system to detect the point where the maximum
power lies.
The code for the MPPT algorithm was written using C language, and the communication
between the computer and the microcontroller was done using AVR programmer, and the clock
frequency of the microcontroller was raised from 8 MHZ to 20 MHZ using external RC crystal
oscillator in order for the system response faster while the car is moving, so if the old point
where the maximum power occur the system will find the new point so fast. For the analogue to
digital converter ADC the internal 1.1 volts reference was used along with LC filter in order to
35 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
regulate the reference voltage, and two small capacitor fitters was used in the input of each
channel to reduce the noise in each channel.
The microcontroller offers several techniques for pulse width modulation, however the
best techniques that sweets these application is called the past PWM mode, in this mode the
timer counter counts from the bottom value to the top value each time, and by changing the
values of the top register will be able to change the frequency of the PWM , when the 16 bit
timer reaches the value that is stored in the compare match register it will either set or clear the
output, so by changing the value of the compare match register we will be able to change the
duty cycle.in addition to that this PWM mode allow us to have high frequency unlike other
modes that are limited to a very low range of frequency.
For the 8 bit ADC two channels has been used in order to sense the voltage and the
current of the PV panel, in order to compute the power we have to first sense the current and then
wait till the conversion process end then we sense the voltage and wait till the process finish. The
simulation for the MPPT was done using PROTEUS because it allow us to test the code of the
MPPT, because this code will allow the user to install the hex file which is generated by the
AVR studio in the microcontroller and test the code, in this case the PV system was represented
using a fixed DC source, however the code does not allow you to specify the power of the DC
source, but the system was able to extract more than 1K A in order to charge the battery as the
simulation result will show, and in this case since the source voltage source is constant the
MPPT system will just seeks more current because more current means more power, in addition
to that the same schematic will be used in the PCB design, since the library of this code is reach
with most of the footprint packages of most of the popular electric devices. And here is the
schematic of the MPPT system.
36 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 3. 3 MPPT circuit diagram
Figure 3. 4 The generated PWM signal from the MCU
37 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
As the above graph shows that the PWM signal from the microcontroller is varying in
order to search the point of the maximum power from the DC source.
Figure 3. 5 MPPT charging current
In the above graph the maximum charging current is 1.0606 KA, which is clearly indicate
that the system is maximizing the charging current since the DC voltage is constant unlike the
PV panel voltage which may change due to irradiance, temperature and shading effect [8].
3.5 Photovoltaic cells modeling

Modeling the PV panels is very important in this project, because most of the parameters
in the solar cell datasheet is with irradiance of 1kw/m^2, and knowing the change in the behavior
or the response of the system during different conditions is very important, also to make sure that
the energy system will be able to deliver the power to the load. The selected temperature for the
simulation will be 25 C according to the weather forecasting in the eco Marathons hosting
country which is Malaysia, where the competition will be held in May. [9]
38 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
The Model of the PV panels has been parameterized by using the short circuit current and
the open circuit voltage of each cell, this has been done by taking a sample cell form the module
and then test it using the multi-meter to obtain the short circuit current and the open circuit
voltage, then a variable resistor with a ramp function in the control input of the block will control
the resistance in ohm of the block, in order to obtain the I-V and the P-V characteristic of the PV
panels.
By using the X-Y scopes , the output I-V and P-V curves were obtained after the simulation has
been run four times, each time the irradiation has been changed in order to obtain I-V and P-V
curves under different irradiations depending on Malaysia irradiation nature during the eco
marathon shell competition which will be held in May [10].
Figure 3. 6 PV Panel system
39 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
0.7
1 KW/m2
0.8KW/m2
0.6 KW/m2
0.6
0.5 KW/m2
0.5
Current (A)
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
10
15
20
Voltage ( V)
25
30
35
40
Figure 3. 7 I-V Curve with different irradiations
20
1KW/m2
18
0.8KW/m2
0.6KW/m2
0.5KW/m2
16
14
12
Power (W)
10
10
15
20
25
30
35
Voltage (V)
Figure 3. 8 P-V curve with different irradiations
40 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
CHAPTER 4:DESIGN OF DC-DC CONVERTER

4.1 DC-DC converter
DC-DC converters divides mainly into two types, linear regulators and switched-mode
converters, where linear regulators can only output at lower voltages from the input, but the
problem is that this type of DC-DC converters are inefficient when the voltage drop is large
where this inefficiency wastes power and needs more expensive and larger components. While
switched-mode DC-DC converters are converters which converts unregulated dc input voltage
into a controlled dc output at a desired voltage level.
4.1.1 Background information:
DC-DC converters have mainly three types, each type has different characteristics, modeling
and outputs, where each type can be used in different applications depends on the purpose of the
user[11].
1- Buck converter ( Step-down converter ): Converts dc input voltage from high voltage
level to a lower voltage level, it has some widely use applications (Example: In regulated
dc power supplies and dc motor speed control).
2- Boost Converter ( Step-up converter ): Converts dc input voltage form low voltage level
to a higher voltage level, this type of converters has some useful applications (Example:
In Regulated dc power supplies and the regenerative braking of dc motors).
3- Buck-Boost Converters (Step-down/Step-up): Converters which is structured by
combining both buck and boost converters, where this type of dc converters, converts a
dc input voltage from one level to another depending on the desired voltage output level,
whether step-up or step-down, an applications for the Buck-Boost converters are:
(Regulated dc power supplies).
As we are looking for a suitable DC-DC converter to our charging system for the battery of the
solar car, we are going to choose the boost converters, because I-V Characteristics of the PV
panel its highly non-linear and it depends on the radiation and temperature, so we need to vary
voltage of the PV panel in order to get the maximum power from the PV panel by varying the
voltage which can be varied by varying the duty cycle[12].
41 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
4.1.2 Analysis and Calculations:

Boost Converter has two states that will be analyzed and studied to get all the equations of the
boost converter, that will be used in the design of the boost converter , simulation and the the
implementation.
4.1.2.1 design parameters :
In order to get less harmonic noise than other switching converters, the best way to operate in the
CCM (continues current mode )[13], then to obtain Lmin and Cmin:
To find Lmin :
=
(1)2
2
(4.1)
To find Cmin :
=
(4.2)
42 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
4.1.2.2 Proof equations (4.1) and (4.2):
Table4. 1 Proof of the equations (4.1) and (4.2)
Lmin Proof , equation (4.1)
Cmin Proof , equation (4.2)
(4.3)
= Is
(4.4)
Q=
(4.5) , since ( = Is )
Vs Is = Vo Io
= T =
Vs = Vo Io
IL=
IL =
(4.13)
(4.14)
(4.8)
(4.9)
=
=
(4.6)
(4.7)
(1)2
(4.12)
(4.10)
(1)2
Then,
- 2 T
(4.11)
Cmin =
For CCM , >= 0
D
Rf
Then ,
(1 )2
2
43 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
4.1.3 Boost converter simulation using MULTISIM

The designed boost converter was simulated by using the Multisim software with the same
values was found and calculated in the design part.
4.1.3.1Multisim-Simulation :
Boost converter was simulated using Multisim software in order to get results and compare them
with the results of the Protues software simulation, to ensure that the results are reasonable and
they make sense , where this sensitivity is based surely on the calculations made for the
designed boost converter design.
4.1.3.2 Schematic circuit:
Figure 2.1. shows the designed boost converter were simulated using Multisim, the figure
shows the schematic circuit developed in order to simulate it and get the output voltage and
current needed according to our design which is based on the load requirements that will charge
the battery in a specific time.
XMM4
XMM3
XMM1
XMM2
D1
L1
20.6H
V1
11 V
XSC1
1N4001G
Q1
IRF1010N
R1
2
C1
302.6F
Ext Trig
+
_
V2
25 V
A
+
V3
5V -0V
10kHz
Figure4. 1Schematic circuit design using Multisim software
44 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
4.1.3.3Design components:
The design of the DC-DC boost converter was done to maximize the output voltage in order to
have larger voltage output than the battery voltage , were the cases of full shading or partially
shading on the PV panels was taken into considerations to have that larger voltage than the
battery voltage even in these case.
-
Capacitor : 302.6 uf
Inductor : 20.6 uH
Transistor : IRF1010N
Diode : 1N4001G
Resistors : 2 ohm
4.1.3.4Switchtype :
Switches are very important in this project, because they are used in DC-DC converters
in order to change the level of the output voltage and current, which is very important in reaching
the point where the maximum power can be extracted from the PV panels, and this point has a
corresponding voltage and current. In power electronics systems we are mostly concerned about
the efficiency, so the job of passing a current and voltage dropping is mostly achieved by
switches, manly ideal switches introduce zero voltage drop when the switch is on, which means
zero resistance, and doesnt pass any current when the switch is off, in other words zero
conductance, and when we operate the switch on both modes ON and OFF, it will act like a
resistance thats manly depends on the duty cycle[14].
MOSFET is the popular for most of the power electronics application for low power
application and for high frequency application. Its basically a three terminal device drain, source
and gate, the gate and the source terminals are the control terminals, also the drain and source
terminals are the power terminals. The gate terminal is insulated from the rest of the device;
hence it does not draw no steady state current. So when the gate terminal of the MOSFET is
charged to a specific voltage with respect to the source it will start conduction by creating a
channel between the source and drain. The type of MOSFET used in most power electronics
45 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
application is the enhancement type, which means that the device will start conduction when the
voltage across the gate and the source is more than the thread hold voltage of the MOSFET that
specified in the data sheet (Vth), and the device will operate in the cut of region when the gate to
source voltage is zero. [14].
4.1.3.4Results :
Using Multisim software in order to simulate the designed boost converter design and get results
and as the boost converter is considered as a switched mode converter, figure 4.2 shows how
PWM generation done by using the Multisim software it was easy to generate PWM for the
transistor switch, by using Bipolar voltage source which can generate PWM for the switch gate.
Figure4. 2PWM generated by using Bipolar voltage source
46 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
CHAPTER 5: ENERGIZING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION , TESTING

and VALIDATION
5.1 Practical implementation of the electrical system
Implementing the desired system which was shown by design and theory in the previous
sections is the main target of this part, in which the implementation of the system practically will
verify all the results and theories that has been considered and also to get a results as well for the
whole system.
5.1.1 First stage of implementation:
In this stage the system were tested in order to charge the 22.2 LI-PO battery and we
successfully got a charging current of 0.5A which is almost the MPPT current.
Figure 5.1practical implementation
47 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
In this stage of implementation , the system was ready to test manually , where the duty cycle of
the MPPT were varied manually as the current and voltage sensing still not applicable in the
system notifying from the above picture the Multi-meter to the right reads the charging current
which is 0.547 A, and also the multi-meter to the left outputs the output voltage of the boost
converter, which is the voltage that will be imposed across the battery in order to charge the
battery. And the board to right is the control circuit that contains the MC and the board to the left
contains the power circuit that contains the boost converter. In this implantation the duty cycle
was varied using a potentiometer as mentioned previously , in other words the MPPT was
tracked manually. And the following picture contains the PWM signal from the microcontroller.
Figure 5.2. PWM signal from the Microcontroller
48 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
5.1.2. Second Stage of implementation:

The 2nd stage of the system implementation was done by creating a prototype for the boost
converter and its microcontroller (MC), by designing and building the boost converter in the
upper level and the microcontroller in the lower level of the prototype. The Upper level includes
all the components needed to build the boost converter circuit which is made up from the same
components used and calculated in the first stage of the implementation. The lower part of the
prototype represent the microcontroller circuit which generates PWM to the gate drive of the
boost converter and also it has been made up from the same components calculated and used in
the first stage of implementation.
Figure 5.3 1) The Upper level of the designed prototype boost converter is the boost converter circuit. 2) The lower level
of the prototype is the microcontroller circuit.
49 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
5.1.3 The Third stage of implementation (PCB Stage):

Printed circuit board abbreviated PCB is electrically connected electronic components using the
copper pathways inside the copper, and its very essential for the circuit establishment, all of the
boards in this project have been done in PCB, because bread boards cannot be used because it
cannot withstand high currents, and using the striped boards in the prototype causes the
connections to get loose with time. The program that has been used to make the PCBs was
PROTEUS ARES. The control circuit and the power circuit for the MPPT circuit has been done
in two separate boards, because doing them in one board means double side board, which is very
difficult when using the old method by using laser printer with photo resist.
Figure 5.4 Printed circuit board abbreviated PCB
The control board contains the 5 volts supply that will power the MCU and even the
analogue ICs in the power circuit board, furthermore the traces was done on the bottom copper
side of the board, and the bottom copper surface with used also as a ground for the hole board, to
make the PCB possible to be done in one side board, because of too many connections. The
original pads of the components has been modified because they are very small, so instead of
using the circular pads a DIL type pads was used, because it will also give a lot of area around
the pad itself which will allow nesting.
50 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 5.5control circuit for MPPT PCB
In the power circuit of the MPPT also the bottom copper used also as ground, and anew
package has been made for the inductor, current sensor and the capacitors. Since this power
circuit will handle a current of 0.65 A which is the short circuit of the PV system the traces width
should be very high.
Figure 5.6Power circuit of the MPT system PCB
51 | P a g e
5.2
Isam
Akil
Samara
Testing :
Testing the system has passed through different stages, for instant in order to fully make
sure that the MPPT code a special circuit has been designed in order to make sure that the code is
fully functioning, and the final stages was the comparison between the commercial device for the
MPPT. Most of the test for the MPPT system has been done when the panels are static, while
using multi-meters for measurement.
The first stage was to test the system without making the MPPT system fully automatic,
in other words the change in the duty cycle in the MPPT algorithm was done manually by using
a potentiometer with the microcontroller, the microcontroller will read the voltage across the
potentiometer and it will send the duty cycle of the PWM signal proportional to the voltage, in
other words the tracking of the maximum power form the PV was done manually.
Figure 5.7phase two of testing
The second stage was to make sure that the MPPT algorithm is fully functioning, this
testing has been done by connecting two potentiometers to the ADC channels of the MCU, these
52 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
two potentiometers will act like the current sensor and the voltage sensor from the PV panel side,
so by changing the values of the current and the voltage the change in the duty cycle was
observed.
Figure 5.8Phase two of the testing process
Figure 5.9phase two results
The oscilloscope was divided into three areas, the first area reads the voltage of the first
potentiometer which represents the current, the second area reads the output of the second
potentiometer which represent the voltage of the PV and the third channel was for the PWM
53 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
signal, any change in the potentiometer voltage will lead to a change in the duty cycle, if the
change is positive then the duty cycle will increase and vice versa, except when one of the output
of the potentiometers is zero then varying the other one wont change the duty cycle because in
this case the power is zero. However this test was very important because what has been noticed
is that sometimes the duty cycle might increase more that the frequency of the PWM signal
itself, so accordingly an if statement was added to the code in order to prevent that from
happening.
The final stage of testing was done on the PV panels, and to observe how much the
MPPT was able to extract form the panel, and the commercial MPPT also was tested in the same
conditions in order compare between both systems. The results were taken in different timings to
have a different outputs and under different irradiation situations, were the testing was between 3
pm and 5 pm.
Figure 5.10 Testing the finalized version of the system
54 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
The Results of testing the system was taken in different timings and under different sun
irradiations in order to have different outputs and to get an idea about the system effeciency
through out testing the system and get outputs from different situations that may vary from best
condition of sun irradiation were the sun is clear and providing the PV pannels perfectely, to
another situation where the sun maybe shaded by a certain surrounding objects or even by
clouds. The next figure (5.11) will show these diferent readings on different timings as
mentioned prevousely, and by that test the readings was showing that the output power taken
from the designed system was 19W by the time of 3 pm having an output current of 0.528 and an
output voltage of 36V.
Figure 5.11 (1) The first reading shows the output current from the charging system where it has been taken nearly at 3
pm. (2) The 2nd reading shows different output and input currents were the time was nearly 4 pm. (3) The 3rd and the last
reading shows an output and input currents taken at nearly 5 pm.
5.2.1 Designed boost converter VS Commercial boost converter:

The results of the implemented boost converter was compared with another commercial boost
converter in order to have an idea about the effciency of the designed and implemented boost
converter by comparing its results with a commecial product that can deliver the same required
output voltage and current.
55 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Table 5.1Comparison between The designed boost converter and a commercial boot converter product
Current (A)
Voltage (V)
Power (W)
The designed boost converter

product
0.528
36
19.008
Commercial boost converter

product
0.601
36
21.636
As the results in the table 5.1 shows a preference for the commercial boost converter at
the expense of the designed boost converter, where the commercial one gives an output power of
21.636W and the designed boost converter gives 19.008W, and this variation refers to some
factors that can affect the output of each product, one of the reasons that can make this slight
deviation is the factor of irradiation, where not exactly the same sun irradiation is applied in both
cases and not the exact timing of testing was done which is surely affected the output of the
product. Also the selection of the design components can make a difference in the output power
of each product.
56 | P a g e
5.3
Isam
Akil
Samara
Validations:
During designing , Implementing and testing , the rules of the Shell Eco-Marathon were
taken into considerations to produce a valid output that can meet these rules and limitations , and
the following table (5.1) will review some of these limitations and how the design and the
implementation met these rules of the competition , where these rules and limitations varies
between some critical points and from different perspectives , the main rules are for the
competition centred around three main subjects. The first subject and the most important thing in
the competition is the safety, and under the slogan of Safety First as this subject is the main
import thing ever and always, not only during the race but all the time as this subject saves both
individuals and surrounding areas, the organisers and the sponsors of the Shell Eco-Marathon put
a very strict rules for the safety. The design also was limited by some rules which will be shown
in the following table (5.1) where some of these rules goes under the rules of safety. Finally, one
of the most important rules that were taken into calculations during car designing , are the
energizing rules , which limits the type of energy source and the electric propulsion. All of these
rule and limitations will be compared to Qatars University 2nd generation solar car ( Gernas 2 )
design in the next table (5.2) :
Table 5.2Comparing the Shell Eco-Marathon rules to the designed car ( Gernas 2 ) [15]
Shell Eco-Marathon rules
No.
Subject
Application
a. Safety Rules :
57 | P a g e
1.
Isam
Akil
Samara
Radio Communication : The

communication between the driver and the
team organizers are allowed as long as the
communication tool is hands-free .
Figure 5. 12 the driver and the team will be provided by the

walkie talkies
Horn :Horn is very important to install in

the car and to be used by the driver while
2.
overtaking during the race.
Figure 5. 13 The Horn is installed and positioned on front of

the car, so the sound of it will be very clear and load for the
others in case of overtaking or for different needing.
58 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Side-view mirrors : Driver must have a

full vision on the road and have to use the
3.
side-view mirrors that can allow him get

better view while overtaking.
Figure 5. 14 The car is provided by two side mirrors to enable

the driver to have a full vision on the road and in case of
overtaking as well
Breaks : Breaking is one of the most

important tools that have to be installed in
4.
terms of safety and as one of the main

tools in any normal vehicle, so that it can
be used in case of emergency or to slow
down.
Figure 5. 15 Braking system is provided in the car to allow the

driver to stop or to decelerate in any needed case
Car weight : The car weight must not

exceeds 140 kg ( not including the driver )
5.
Figure 5. 16 The car was weighted to be 36 kg (without the

driver)
59 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Helmet and safety goggles: Driver safety

is taken very highly required and strictly
6.
needed to be exist, and that was notified

by putting a rule that states that the fullface and three quarter style helmets and
safety goggles are required for both driver
and reserve driver.
Figure 5. 17 Helmets are available for both the driver and the
reserve driver.
Diver clothing and comfort: Racing suite

(fire retardant) , gloves and shoes are
7.
very highly recommended to be

provided for both driver and the reserve
driver. Also a ventilation system have to
be installed inside the car to provide the
driver with a good surrounding
temperature inside the car and to avoid any
heat stress for the driver.
Figure 5. 18ventilation system is provided in the car to have
an comfort area for the driver
60 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 5. 19 The suite and the cloves for the driver for the
safety of the driver
8.
Fire extinguisher: The car must

beprovided with a fire extinguisher of type
(ABC or BC type) and the driver have to
be trained on how to use it in case of
emergency.
Figure 5. 20 The car is provide with a fire extinguisher which

is usable and valid to use by the driver in case of emergency.
9.
Seat built :The seat built of the drive must

be installed with a seat built for the driver
safety that can protect the drive in case of
emergency and it is very essential and
important to use it during the race.
Figure 5. 21 Seat built is provide with the seat to be used by
61 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
the driver while racing
b. Vehicle Design:
3 or 4 Wheels vehicle:According to design
limitations of the competition, the vehicle
1.
must be designed to be with 3 or 4 wheels

only.
Figure 5. 22 1) 2 Wheels in front side. 2) 1 Wheel in Back side
Body Stability :The body of the car must

be stable and not to be affected by any
2.
weather changing like wind and rain for

example, so that it will not be dangerous
to other Team members.
Figure 5. 23 The car was tested many times and in different

situations in order to have the best stability of the body in
order to get the best body stability on the road.
62 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Cover of the energy compartment: Easy

access to any energy compartment
3.
(Battery ,Mottor , Charger , ect.) have to

be applied in the car for any inspection or
maintenance.
Figure 5. 24. Energy compartment that contains the Battery,

Motor and the charger is very easy to access by a hard
doormade from plastic sheet.
4.
Chassis solidity :The Chassis must be very

strong and hard to protect the driver in
case of accidents.
Figure 5. 25 the Chassis of the car body which is made of

Aluminum bars and coulumns and it is very hard and strong
enough to protect the driver in case of accidents
The isolation of the Energy storage

system:any component of the Energy
5.
storage system must be isolated

completely from the drivers
compartment, for example ( Batteries,

Charger, Motor and the Electrical
connections ).
Figure 5.26 The Electrical Energy system compartment,
Includes The Motor, Batteries , charger and the electrical
conections
63 | P a g e
6.
Isam
Akil
Samara
Vehicle access : The car must have an

easy way to access and also to exit, so the
driver can access and vacate the car within
10 seconds.
Figure 5. 27 A door made of a plastic transparent sheet with a

dimensions of ( X ) makes the way easy for the driver to
access and exit from the vehicle in both normal and
emergency situations
7.
Emergency shut-down: An Emergency

system provides a bottoms from both
interior and exterior sides of the vehicle
that can be pressed in cases of emergency
by the driver or by the assistance team to
shut-down the system.
Figure 5. 28 Two bottoms for emergency shut-down which

can be used by the driver or any assistor in the emergency
cases
8.
Braking :The vehicle must be provided by

an activated braking system with
independently activated brakes one for

the front side wheels and the other for
the rear side wheels.
64 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Figure 5. 29The car is provided by a two separated braking

systems 1) Braking system for the rear wheels and 2) another
braking system for the front wheel
c. Energy Sources:
Vehicle Electrical system: The rules put a
safety margin to the output voltage of the
1.
vehicles, so that the maximum voltage on

board of the vehicle must be below 48v
nominal and 60v maximum.
Figure 5. 30 The out put voltage is within the margin given by

the rules of the competition, the system output is tested to be
about 24v
Battery: Batteries must be Lithium-
polymer based batteries with a battery

2.
management system (BMS) in order to

shut-down in case of overvoltage , over
current and over temperature.
Figure 5. 31 The Battery used in the system of the car

energizing is Lithium-polymer based with a BMS system
provided in case of emergency .
Solar cells: The solar cells must a surface

area less than 0.17 m2 ( 10 cells of 5X5
3.
inches. )
Figure 5. 32 The solar panels used in the car to recharge the
65 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
batteries are within the size of 0.17 m2
4.
Motor : it is allowed to use up to 2 electric

motors with a controller.
Figure 5. 33 One motor of 22V rated voltage has been used in

the car
66 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

6.1Conclusion
At the end of this report, during the implementation of the system that is needed for our
application for shell Eco marathon car .Implementing the first stage for our system was a
challenge for us .However, with our hard work we had done it successfully .The system has
been simulated by different softwares such as Proteus Software andMultism .We have got
different responses to the boost converter . Moreover, we have implemented our system on the
breadboard, prototype model and PCB, where it has been connected it to the real solar panels
where we had noticed the boost converter working successfully and then it was compared to
another commercial boost converter and we have got a results from the test and it was validated
as well. The system was simulated and implemented based on the Shell Eco-Marathon rules and
limitations, were these rules and limitations were taken into considerations and calculations from
the first moment of this project and till the end of it. The implementation of the project was
divided into two main parts, where the team was divided into two sections, the first team was
working on the energy and electrical system implementation and to provide the car with the best
efficient system that could be done, which was the main part of the senior design project. And
the second team was mainly responsible for building the mechanical part of the car, where the
body design and implementation should be done. However this division of two teams didnt
mean a full separation of work, where the two parts of work could not be done without the other
and the interference and collaboration in work was a must to end the project in the best way and
to get the best output needed.
6.2 Future work and Recommendations

An improvements on the car can be done in future, where more technology items can be
added to it, by putting some LCDs which can display some details of the car and the race, like
the consumed power, the battery charging level, the motor speed and a GPS system. Also the
weight of the car can be reduced by having a different material for the body of it and by selecting
lighter components, like the motor, battery and the PV cells, which can be very effectively on the
subject of efficiency improving, where lighter weight can offer less friction.
67 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
REFFRENCES
[1] ExxonMobil. (2013) The Outlook for Energy 2013: The View to 2040. [Online].
http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/news_pub_eo2013.pdf
[2] Shell Oil Company. (27th May 2013) History of Shell Eco Marathon. [Online].
http://www.shell.com/global/environment-society/ecomarathon/about/history.html
[3] Samer Sai,Sami Al-Shurman,Ahmad Ibrahimi, A. AbdulaAziz,M.Hellabi,Farid Touwti
Alnunu, ""Design of Qatar University's First Solar Car for Shell Eco-Marathon Competition
," in First International Conference on Renewable Enegeies and Vehicular Tech., Doha,
2012.
[4] Steel City Robotics. ( 2013, May) Mechanical Considerations. [Online].
http://www.steelcityrobotics.org/wpcontent/uploads/2011/05/mechanical_considerations.pdf
[5] RCHELICOPTERFUN. (2008) RCHELICOPTERFUN. [Online].
http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/rc-lipo-batteries.html
[6] (2009, may) rovingnetworks. [Online]. www.rovingnetworks.com
[7] MIT students. (2008, December ) mit.edu. [Online].
mit.edu/evt/summary_battery_specifications.pdf
[8] Dave Freeman. (2010, november) texasinsturment. [Online].
http://www.ti.com/lit/an/slva446/slva446.pdf
[9] (2008) climatemps. [Online]. http://www.malaysia.climatemps.com/
[10] Solar Radiation Map. [Online]. http://161.142.139.60/solar/menu.html
[11] M., Tore , U., & William , R. Ned, "switch-mode DC-DC Converters," in Power
electronics. United States of America: John Wiley and sons, Inc., 2009.
[12] A., & Salimi, M. Zakipour, "On backstepping controller design in buck/boost dc-dc
converter," in International conference on electrical, electronics and civil engineering,
2011.
[13] Linear Technology Magazine Circuit Collection, Volume IV. [Online].
http://cds.linear.com/docs/Application%20Note/an84f.pdf
68 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
[14] V Ramanarayanan. (2005, Nov.) Course Material On Switched Mode Power Conversion.
[15] Norman Koch, "Official Rules 2013," Shell Eco-marathon, p. 37, 2013.
[16] (2011, Dec) Photovoltaics. [Online]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaics
[17] (2011, Nov.) Detailed design review report of Solar car for American Solar challenge.
[Online]. http://eng.fsu.edu/me/senior_design/prev.html
69 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix
Appendix A
Shell Eco-marathon
Official Rules 2013
CHAPTER I
70 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix A
Shell Eco-marathon
Official Rules 2013
CHAPTER I
71 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix A
Shell Eco-marathon
Official Rules 2013
CHAPTER I
72 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix A
Shell Eco-marathon
Official Rules 2013
CHAPTER I
73 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix B
74 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix C
75 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix D
The code using C :
#include<avr/io.h>
#include<avr/delay.h>
voidPWM_in()
{
TCCR1A|=(1<<COM1A1)|(1<<COM1B1)|(1<<WGM11);
TCCR1B|=(1<<WGM13)|(1<<WGM12)|(1<<CS10);
ICR1=1599;// frequency of oscillation
OCR1A=800;// initall duty cycle
DDRB=(1<<PB1);// output of the PWM
DDRD=0xff;
PORTD=0xff;// led on
}
voidADC_int(void)
{
ADCSRA|=(1<<ADPS2)|(1<<ADPS1)|(1<<ADPS0);// Set ADC prescalar to 128 - 125KHz sample rate @ 16MHz
ADCSRA|=(1<<ADEN);// Enable ADC
}
uint8_tADC_Start(uint8_tchannel)
{
DIDR0=0x00;
ADMUX=(ADMUX)&0x10;
if(channel<=0x07)
{
ADMUX=(ADMUX)|channel;}//choose channel number
ADMUX|=(1<<REFS0);// Set ADC reference to AVCC
ADMUX|=(1<<ADLAR);// Left adjust ADC result to allow easy 8 bit readin
if(ADSC!=1)
{
ADCSRA|=(1<<ADSC);// Start A2D Conversions
}
while((ADCSRA&0x10)!=0x10){}
DIDR0=0xff;
returnADCH;
}
intmain(void)
{
uint8_tvoltage;
int8_tcurrent;
uint16_tpower;
uint16_toldpower;
PWM_in();
ADC_int();
oldpower=0;
while(1)
{
current=(-1*ADC_Start(4));// current sensor is connected to channel zero
voltage=ADC_Start(5);//voltage sensor is connected to channel 1
power=current*voltage;
if(power>oldpower){
if(OCR1A<=1599)
OCR1A=OCR1A+100;
}
elseif(power<oldpower){
if(OCR1A!=0)
OCR1A=OCR1A-100;
}
oldpower=power;
}
}
76 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix E
77 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix E
78 | P a g e
Isam
Akil
Samara
Appendix F
79 | P a g e

Graduation Project - Final Version - Mus'Ab Samarah

Hochgeladen von

Dokumentinformationen

Originaltitel

Copyright

Verfügbare Formate

Dieses Dokument teilen

Dokument teilen oder einbetten

Freigabeoptionen

Stufen Sie dieses Dokument als nützlich ein?

Sind diese Inhalte unangemessen?

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Graduation Project - Final Version - Mus'Ab Samarah

Hochgeladen von

Copyright:

Verfügbare Formate

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

A Graduation Project Report

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Design Constraints: ..................................................................................................... 14

CHAPTER 2: SYSTEMOVERVIEW ....................................................................................... 16

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

3.5 Photovoltaic cells modeling ............................................................................................. 38

The Third stage of implementation (PCB Stage): ................................................. 50

5.2.1 Designed boost converter VS Commercial boost converter: ...................................... 55

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................. 67

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2.1 The Gernas I solar car [3] ......................................................................................... 17

Figure 3. 1 BMS circuit diagram ............................................................................................... 33

Figure4. 1Schematic circuit design using Multisim software ..................................................... 44

Figure 5.1practical implementation ........................................................................................... 47

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 5.4 Printed circuit board abbreviated PCB ...................................................................... 50

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Table 3.1Motor specification ..................................................................................................... 28

Table4. 1 Proof of the equations (4.1) and (4.2) ......................................................................... 43

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure1. 1Energy demands between 1970 and 2040 [1]

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

1.2 General Problem Statement:

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

1.3 Project Objective:

2013.Our main tasks in this project is rounded

The total surface area of solar cells will be restricted to 0.17 2

The maximum vehicle weight, without the Driver is 140 kg.

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

2.2 Mechanical Design:

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2.1 The Gernas I solar car [3]

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2.2Gernas III Body Shell.

2.2.2.2Chassis and Steering:

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2.3The Steering in Gernas II and the braking systems .

2.2.2.3 Braking System:

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2.4The hand break for front wheel in Gernas II

Figure 2.5The Wheel used in GernasII .

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Table 2. 1 Gernas I VS Gernas III specifications

2.3 Energy System

Figure 2. 6 The oveall system components

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2. 7 TURNIGYNANO-TECH lithium polymer battery

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

Figure 2.8Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur [18]

2.3.2 Solar Arrays:

Figure 2.9The Solar Cells

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

2.3.3 Boost Converter:

Figure 2. 10 The DC-DC boost converter topology.

Qatar University Third Generation Zero-CO2 footprint Solar

CHAPTER 3: ENERGY SYSTEM DESIGN