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Conceptual Design and Study of Feasibility of a Compressed Air Driven Car

Azimi, Arman | 2010

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: English
  3. Document No: 40385 (58)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology, International Campus, Kish Island
  5. Department: Science and Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Durali, Mohammad
  7. Abstract:
  8. Using clean and renewable energy as driving force for vehicles is becoming more and more important because of rising fuel prices and also environmental concerns. Using solar and wind power for direct use in vehicles seems impractical with today’s technology. Compressed air can serve as an intermediate medium to store energy and utilize it for running vehicles. The main purpose of this research was to conceptually design an air driven vehicle with acceptable performance in a city for everyday life. After a brief history, at first step advantages and disadvantages of using air as driving force of vehicle is studied. This study was carried out in different categories including cost, capability of using renewable energy, environmental, and technical point of view. After finding considerable advantages of air as the driving force for the vehicles the next step was to conceptually design vehicles. In this stage some initial designs for air vehicle were developed and then these designs were compared together and the best was chosen. Next a drive train compatible with initial idea was designed. This drive train, a pneumatic system, is designed in a way which is capable of recycling energy when the vehicle is reducing speed and also when the vehicle is going downhill. Then computer simulation was used to verify the performance of this pneumatic system. Then main parts of the vehicle including a body were drawn using solidworks program in order to find mass properties of the vehicle. This body shape was then modeled in the GAMBIT program and the result was exported to FLUENT and the aerodynamic forces acting on the body at different speeds were found. Using output data from computer simulations and also some experimental data the acceleration performance of the vehicle was studied and parameters like traveling distance and slope climbing capabilities were included in this study. Then Behavior of air was studied with aid of thermodynamics in the next part. Efficiency of this vehicle in different situations has also been calculated. Behavior of air driven vehicle in acceleration and other situations were studied by finding state space representation of drive train and vehicle in longitudinal motion. Results of modeling showed that vehicle has an acceptable response in different situations. Finally, a compressed air driven vehicle was compared to an internal combustion engine vehicle economically. This comparison showed that although an air driven vehicle costs more than a conventional vehicle but it will spend much less for fuel and maintenances.


  9. Keywords:
  10. Pneumatic Automobile ; Compressed Air Driven Vehicle ; Green Vehicle ; New Energies

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