Design And Implementation Of A Simulation Tool For

Abstract

Solar power is a feasible source of renewable energy. Solar cars are becoming alternatives to cleaner emissions in transportation sector. Therefore, this field is becoming of great interest for the researches. To develop, analyze and implement the system, a necessity of a simulation tool comes in front. A tool that can analyze the design of a mathematical model, associated with different electrical and mechanical components in a system, plays a vital role to study their characteristics. This project is about modeling of different components of a solar powered electric car mathematically, to evaluate the characteristics of various components of the solar car along with its capability of determining the overall performance. The basic components, which are the part of this project, are: solar panel, battery, traction motor, charge controller and speed controller. The simulation tool selected for the project is SIMULINK, a graphical programming tool used with MATLAB, for plotting the graphs to study the dynamic behavior of different subsystems. Finally, all the mathematical models of components used in the system are integrated together to represent a complete dynamic model of a solar car, which is tested for three different environmental conditions that include sunny day, partially cloudy day and mostly cloudy day. The performance of the system is observed under these conditions.