The goal of our project is to design a wind turbine that is going to directly provide enough power to the rear refrigeration compartment of the truck to cool the cargo instead of using the diesel engine to power it. The designed turbine is going to be placed in an aerodynamic housing/wind deflector that will help reduce the drag force on the truck, and allow enough wind to rotate the turbine to power the refrigerant unite with the power it needs. While optimizing our system, special attention will be paid to the type of wind turbine used since different wind turbines create different drag forces. We want to pick a wind turbine that will create the least amount of drag force thus reduce the overall fuel consumption. By having the turbine plus its housing positioned on top of the head-cab compartment (the most drag area), we are expecting that the housing wind deflector to increase our system efficiency as well as for the wind turbine to feed the refrigerator with efficient renewable energy to satisfy our customers’ needs.
To fulfill our project goals, a set of realistic constrains must be considered. Most of the following consideration:
- Economic: The project was established with a several economic considerations in mind. The turbine will be made out of inexpensive material, most of which can be purchased locally. Material choices specially for the turbine design have in fact a heavy influence on the overall cost purchase. In order for our small turbine electricity generation to offset the purchase cost over time, inexpensive light composite material must be considered in designing the turbine.
- Environmental and Sustainability: Burning fossil fuel has a negative effect on the environment because it releases carbon dioxide and other gases. Our design is going to contribute to the field of green energy by cutting of the diesel engine to run the refrigerant out of the system cycle which can help to shift energy production away from fossil fuels.
- Manufacturability: the manufacturing consideration aspect will focus on the ease and cost of manufacturing the turbine as well as the availability and cost of material. Some selected parts for our project were already manufactured under the dimension and properties that satisfy the system.
- Health and Safety: Health and safety were also considered on the design where we optimized our turbine design to specific dimension that the head-cab compartment can withstand, making sure that the designed turbine and it’s housing would not overload (no more than 50 lbs.) than the roof of the compartment causing it to bend or dent. The housing and the deflector going to be supported by an aluminum light frame (in our prototype is made of wood) that will hold the system safely in position. The design should not exceed the height of the cargo compartment. One reason is to avoid the risk of damaging or striking the underside of an interstate bridge. Also to avoid causing an extra drag in the system due to extra cross-sectional area against the wind force. All parts included in the system such as generators, shafts, hubs and etc., must fit within the dimension of the aerodynamic housing compartment to avoid interference with the aerodynamic wind flow and other safety issue.