Performance study of lead-acid battery in a solar car under different traffic and weather conditions

Abstract

In this paper performance of lead-acid battery in a solar car, proposed earlier for Dhaka city dwellers, has been studied under different traffic and weather conditions while the car travels in a long route of Dhaka city. A model of the electric drive system of the proposed car, developed in Matlab Simulink, is used to investigate the battery response. It has been observed that the energy required by the car when it travels 30% of the road at the top speed of 60 km/hour is about 65% of the energy required when it travels 90% of the road at that speed, which further decreases with the increase of number of stoppages. Because of this feature, the proposed solar car appears to be an appropriate means of transport in Dhaka, the city with quotidian traffic congestion. In addition of being emission free, it also ensures less energy consumption during heavy traffic congestion compared to a fuel driven car which burns more fuel and releases more toxic gases under the same road conditions.