Numerical investigation of wake energy induced by cruising passenger vehicles on highway

Abstract

Wind energy developed from the wake induced by the cruising vehicles has a large potential in harvesting energy through the wind turbine system that could be possibly used in supplying power for lightings along highway. This paper presents the feasibility study of the potentiality of vertical axis wind turbine to be placed along the median of highways in Malaysia. The velocity of the wake from the moving vehicles observed in the median of the highway is the important output parameter in this research. Transient Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation is done using time-efficient dynamic mesh approach called overset mesh as to represent the real condition of flow induced by moving vehicles in highway. There are four cases simulation carried out, that are, are one car on single lane, one car on both side lane, two cars on single lane and two cars on both side lane. The vehicle geometry is set as standard sedan car and the speed is ranging between 90km/h and 110km/h. From the findings, It is observed that the wake of two moving cars from both sides lane is to be the case that produces the highest wake velocity with 12 m/s. The finding also shows that the higher the speed of the car the higher the velocity of wake induced, and the sequent car contributes in escalating the wake induced velocity.