As we progress toward a more sustainable future, it is imperative as the duty of an engineer to discover and engineer ways in which the efficiency of vehicles can be increased. The use of wind power to regenerate energy for use in a car is a clean and efficient way of increasing a vehicle’s efficiency. The wind diverting integrated generator turbine, although producing low power at its current state, is a viable way of accomplishing this task. Future iterations of this design will will require some major redesigns to be able to prove viable power production for the implementation into electric and hybrid vehicles. The following are just a few improvements that will be implemented as this project moves forward.
One of the major issues experienced was the ease of rotation for the turbine. This can be addressed by implementing a fixed axis with a ball bearing in the turbine blade itself. This would allow for less frictional forces for the rotation of the turbine.
Generators require high quality metals to be used for the amplification of magnetic fields and the ability to produce higher power outputs. This will be addressed with the stator being manufactured out of iron and implementing the yoke.
The airfoil used in the blade design needs to be revisited so that the lift produced by the blade can be increased. Under the conditions cars are driven, the airfoil needs to be reshaped into a more suitable curvature.