increased motorbike driving range by alternator … · rajesh kocheril1*, preejo mathew2 and...

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Int. J. Mech. Eng. & Rob. Res. 2014 Rajesh Kocheril et al., 2014

ISSN 2278 – 0149 www.ijmerr.com

Vol. 3, No. 3, July, 2014

© 2014 IJMERR. All Rights Reserved

Research Paper

INCREASED MOTORBIKE DRIVING RANGE BYALTERNATOR CRANKSHAFT COUPLING AND DUAL DRIVE

Rajesh Kocheril1*, Preejo Mathew2 and Sreejith R Menon2

*Corresponding Author: Rajesh Kocheril � [email protected]

As modern culture and technology continue to develop, the growing presence of global warmingand irreversible climate change draws increasing amounts of concern from the world’s population.Countries around the world are working to drastically optimize the use of fossil fuels, reduceCO2 emissions as well as other harmful environmental pollutants by advancing existing vehiculartechnology. By incorporating alternative energy drive-trains into vehicles that also use combustionengines, they allow for a slightly cleaner mode of transportation. The paper investigates theeffect of externally loading the engine and hence shifting the fuel consumption curve to leanestair fuel ratio to obtain a better driving range. The mechanical design for this test was done inCATIA. The bike is powered by a single cylinder, 4 Stroke air-cooled 125cc conventional petrolengine and a 360W/15A geared DC Motor (Jack Erjavec and Jeff Arias, 2012). The bike’sdesign is chopper in nature with a high front rake angle. Motor gets its power from the batteriesand drives the vehicle when the engine’s cut off, controlled by an electronic control unit. Oursystem enables approximately a 40% increase in the bike’s overall driving range, lesser air andnoise pollution, enhanced comfort in city drive at low speeds and greater co-generative efficiency.

Keywords: Alternator-Flywheel coupling, Battery packs, Chopper, Clutch mechanism, DC

Motor, Driving range, Electronic control unit (ECU), Gasoline engine, Multiple

drives, Noxious pollution, Rake angle, Variable accelerator

INTRODUCTION

The vehicular population in India is growingat an alarming rate. The streets arecongested and thus the trend of buyingmotorbikes has increased a lot. The gearshifting in this congested city traffic doesn’tallow for the optimum fuel consumption.

1 Asst. Professor, Toch Institute of Science & Technology, Arakunnam, Ernakulam, Kerala, India.2 Final Year, B.Tech. Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, TIST Arakkunnam, Ernakulam, Kerala, India.

Statistics shows that in India the pollutioncaused by the motorbike is the highest.According to Indian Auto Industry, domesticmotor vehicle sales in the year 2013 showsthat motorbike sales was about 80% of thetotal vehicles sold in the country. Studies alsoshow that by 2050 the fossil fuels will bedepleted.

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The optimum performance of an internal com-bustion engine is during the green zone ofthe vehicle. The green zone indicates thespeed range where the emission or fuel con-sumption is the lowest

Figure 1: Variation of Power atVarious Engine Speeds

The optimum performance of an internalcombustion engine is during the green zoneof the vehicle. The green zone indicates thespeed range where the emission or fuelconsumption is the lowest. The graph showsthat the fuel consumption above and belowa specific speed range is high.

By loading the engine when it is not in itsgreen zone we can improve the fuel consum-

ption curve, it may be dead weight or analternator. Dead weight won’t give usregeneration of energy, but with the help ofan alternator we can charge the battery also.To disengage the loading of the engine duringthe green zone a clutch mechanism is imple-mented.

DESIGN AND FABRICATION

The designing of the motorbike was carriedout in CATIA. The rake angle of the bike wasincreased for better balancing of the frontwheel. Designing of the frame had to be doneas modification in an already existing bikewas not possible due to restriction in space.The vehicle weighs 140Kg.

The energy of the engine is regeneratedduring different stages, namely:

In idling, the fuel consumption is solely forkeeping the engine ON and there is no outputat the wheels. Hence by coupling thealternator at the flywheel we are making theengine to do some useful work by chargingthe batteries (Mark S Duvall, 2005).

At lower gears the torque is maximized toget the vehicle in motion. During this moment,surplus torque is produced. Hence even ifwe load the engine during this period it won’taffect the performance of the engine.

Once the vehicle is moving downhill wenormally push the gear to neutral or clutch isengaged. In both cases the engine is workingand there is no net output of the engine onthe wheels. This system is now similar to whathappens during idling of the engine. Thevehicle moves due to the gradient. Theengine power is thus utilized for charging thebattery as mentioned in the idling case(T Markel and A Simpson, 2006).

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The alternator is coupled to the enginecrankshaft by extending the crank shaft witha pulley at the end and a v-belt is used toconnect the pulley and the alternator. Thealternator crankshaft coupling is made possi-ble by a clutch mechanism fitted on thecrankshaft onto which the pulley is fitted. Thealternator produces AC current which isconverted to DC by using a rectifier. Thealternator stops charging the battery whenthe battery is fully charged. The motor isconnected to the battery, potentiometer andthe ECU. The potentiometer allows the DCmotor to vary the speed and the ECUtranslates the speed modulation to the motor(Thomas H Bradley and Andrew A Frank,2007; Benjamin M Geller, 2010).

The engaging and disengaging of theclutch mechanism during the green zone ofthe vehicle is made possible by implementinga speed sensor. Whenever the speed isabove 40 Kmph and below 60 Kmph theclutch mechanism is engaged, unloading thealternator coupling during the optimumperformance of the engine. Below 40 Kmphas there is sufficient amount of torqueproduced by the engine charging of thebattery is made possible at ease. Above 60Kmph the charging is made possible as thevehicle has acquired sufficient momentum.

As the alternator is directly coupled to thecrankshaft charging is more efficient. If it hadbeen connected to the chain or the rear wheelthere would have been more losses.

The development is a motorbike poweredby a single cylinder, 4 Stroke air-cooled 125ccconventional petrol engine and a 270W/15Ageared DC Motor (DongsukKum et al., 2010;V Ganesan, 2007), giving 40% more drivingrange than a normal motorcycle.

The rear wheel is driven by the engine itselfthrough a chain drive and the motor isconnected to the front wheel by a chain drivemaking the bike an all-wheel drive. It’sdesigned as a parallel hybrid (DongsukKumet al., 2010), so that it can run either on motoror on engine. The bike has a single variableaccelerator mechanism for controlling boththe engine and the motor (Chan-Chiao Lin,2003).

The primary power source is the engineitself which is connected to a 24V alternatorby a belt drive which charges two 12V/63Ahmaintenance free batteries. The battery ischarged through the alternator when theengine’s running (Noah Vawter, 2008). Motorgets its power from the batteries and drivesthe vehicle when the engine’s cut off. Whiledriven on the DC motor, the use of a controllerenables the rider to scale greater speeds. Therider may very well switch to the engine formore power or sudden acceleration, throughmanual switching (Saurabh Mahapatra,2008).

Figure 2: Multipart Figures

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RESULTS

Vehicle Specification

• 4 Stroke air-cooled 125cc conventionalpetrol engine (Single Cylinder)

• 15A/120W, 600rpm (at full load)

• Motor to wheel ratio - 2.57:1

• Flywheel to alternator ratio 1:1

• Alternator: 24V/63A.

• Two 12V/63A maintenance freebatteries

• Single variable accelerator mechanism

• Manual switching

• All wheel drive- The rear wheel is drivenby the engine itself and the motor isconnected to the front wheel by a chaindrive

• Chopper with high front rake angle andno rear suspension.

Test Results

Test Surface: Toc H ground

Testing Speed of the Vehicle While Drivenon Engine: 30Kmph

Mileage Without Hybrid System: Engineonly- 30.4 Kmpl

Mileage With Hybrid System

• Engine-30 Kmpl

• Motor-12 Kmpl

• Total mileage-42 Kmpl

As the speed is set at 30Kmph and weget a mileage of 30KmpL on the engine,therefore, the engine is run for 1 hour.

The rate at which the alternator chargesthe battery is 6 Amps/hour [Checked with anampere meter connected in series with thealternator and the battery].

Hence, 6 Ampere is now stored in thebattery.

Motor consumes 8 Amps/hour

Motor Speed: 15Kmph (when the batterywas only partially charged)

Therefore distance covered with motor is12Km

Increase in driving range (%) = 12/30=40%.

FUTURE SCOPE

To harness wasted energy due to frictionefficiently, the existing DC motor could beused for propulsion as well as braking as thiscan be achieved by merely changing thepolarity whenever braking is required. Astable charging of the battery can beachieved by integrating a super capacitorsinto the circuit (Donghwa Shin, 2012).

ADVANTAGES1. This system can run either on engine or

on motor, thereby utilising both the powersystems to its maximum. Hence, it has amajor implication for the reducing petro-leum consumption and vehicle air pollu-tion emissions worldwide (Garth Heuteland Erich Muehlegger, 2010).

2. Better utilization of fuel at idling and atlow speeds.

3. Reduced wear and tear on the gasolineengine.

4. Reduced noise emissions resulting fromsubstantial use of electric engine at lowspeeds, leading to roadway noisereduction and beneficial noise healtheffects.

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5. Reduced air pollution emissions due toless fuel consumed per travel mile,leading to improved human health withregard to respiratory and other illness.

6. Increased driving range without refuellingor recharging compared with electricvehicles and perhaps even comparedwith internal-combustion vehicles.Limitations in range have been a problemfor traditional electric vehicles.

7. Auto cut-off of the battery after being fullycharged.

DISADVANTAGES

1. It has been observed that the success ofthe motorbike comes despite the needto carry two complete power systems. Ina poorly designed motorbike this mightincrease the weight and size andtherefore greater losses in accelerationand aerodynamic drag.

CONCLUSION

It is clearly seen that by shifting the fuelconsumption curve and making the enginework at optimum efficiency most of the timewe can increase the driving range combiningthe electric and conventional IC enginedrives.

This system ensures a cleaner and moreeconomical solution to the energy crisis. Thesystem is cost effective and easy to imple-ment as there is a small need to add an alter-nator, a DC motor and a clutch mechanismto the design. Cost effective as it savesimmense amount of money on fuel. In citiesdriving the vehicle on electric mode increaseshuman comfort as there is no need for

constant shifting of gears. The reserve ofFossil fuels is at dwindling level and thispaves the way to introduce alternative fuelsinto the market. The alternate technologiesand fuels are not viable and needs furtheradvancement; hence we have to utilize theavailable technology.

REFERENCES

1. Benjamin M Geller (2010), “IncreasedUnderstanding of Hybrid Vehicle DesignThrough Modeling, Simulation andOptimization”, Colorado State University,Fort Collins, Colorado.

2. Chan-Chiao Lin, HueiPeng and Jessy WGrizzle (2003), “Power ManagementStrategy for a Parallel Hybrid ElectricTruck”, IEEE Transactions on ControlSystems Technology, Vol. 11, No. 6.

3. Donghwa Shin, Younghyun Kim, YanzhiWang, Naehyuck Chang and MassoudPedram (2012), “Constant-currentRegulator-based Battery-supercapacitorHybrid Architecture for High-rate PulsedLoad Applications”, Journal of PowerSources, pp. 516- 524.

4. DongsukKum, HueiPeng and Norman KBucknor (2010), “Supervisory Control ofParallel Hybrid Electric Vehicles for Fueland Emissions Reduction”, ASMEJournal of Dynamic Systems, Measure-ment and Control, DS-09-1340.

5. Garth Heutel and Erich Muehlegger(2010), “Consumer Learning and HybridVehicle Adoption”, HKS Faculty ResearchWorking Paper Series, RWP10-013.

6. Jack Erjavec and Jeff Arias (2012),“Alternative Fuel Technology Electric,

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Hybrid and Fuel-cell Vehicles”, ISBN-13:978-81-315-1130-5.

7. Mark S Duvall (2005), “Battery Evaluationfor Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles”,IEEE.

8. Noah Vawter (2008), “Electrical PowerGeneration Systems”, MIT Media Lab.

9. Saurabh Mahapatra, Tom Egel, RaahulHassan, RohitShenoy and MichaelCarone (2008), “Model-based Design forHybrid Electric Vehicle Systems”, TheMath Works, 2008-01-0085.

10. T Markel and A Simpson (2006), “Plug-inHybrid Electric Vehicle Energy StorageSystem Design”, National RenewableEnergy Laboratory, NREL/CP-540-39614.

11. Thomas H Bradley and Andrew A Frank(2007), “Design, Demonstrations andSustainability Impact Assessments forPlug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles”, Elsevier,Renewable & sustainable energyreviews, doi: 10.1016.

12. V Ganesan (2007), “Internal CombustionEngines”, Tata McGraw Hill Publications,ISBN-13: 978-0-07-064817-3.

increased motorbike driving range by alternator … · rajesh kocheril1*, preejo mathew2 and...

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