Mahbubur Rashid

Novel design of a self powered and self sensing magneto-rheological damper

Magneto-rheological (MR) dampers are semi-active control devices and use MR fluids. Magneto-rheological dampers have successful applications in mechatronics engineering, civil engineering and numerous areas of engineering. At present, traditional MR damper systems, require a isolated power supply and dynamic sensor. This paper presents the achievability and accuracy of a self- powered and self-sensing magneto-rheological damper using harvested energy from the vibration and shock environment in which it is deployed and another important part of this paper is the increased yield stress of the Magneto rheological Fluids. Magneto rheological fluids using replacement of glass beads for Magnetic Particles to surge yield stress is implemented here. Clearly this shows better result on yield stress, viscosity, and settling rate. Also permanent magnet generator (PMG) is designed and attached to a MR damper. For evaluating the self-powered MR dampers vibration mitigating capacity, an Engine Mount System using the MR damper is simulated. The ideal stiffness of the PMG for the Engine Mount System (EMS) is calculated by numerical study. The vibration mitigating performance of the EMS employing the self-powered & self sensing MR damper is theoretically calculated and evaluated in the frequency domain.

Modelling and performance evaluation of energy harvesting linear magnetorheological (MR) damper

In this study, an magnetorheological (MR) damper has been designed based on its energy harvesting capability which combines the key benefits of energy generation (reusing lost energy) and magnetorheological damping (controllable damping force). The energy harvesting part has a magnet and coil arrangement to generate energy. A two-dimensional axisymmetric model of the proposed magnetorheological damper is developed in COMSOL Multiphysics where different magnetic field properties are analysed generally by finite element method. Finally, the energy harvesting capability of the proposed magnetorheological damper model is tested by a universal testing machine and observed through an oscilloscope. The maximum induced output voltage was around 0.7 V.

Wireless Battery Management System of Electric Transport

Electric vehicles (EVs) are being developed and considered as the future transportation to reduce emission of toxic gas, cost and weight. The battery pack is one of the main crucial parts of the electric vehicle. The power optimization of the battery pack has been maintained by developing a two phase evaporative thermal management system which operation has been controlled by using a wireless battery management system. A large number of individual cells in a battery pack have many wire terminations that are liable for safety failure. To reduce the wiring problem, a wireless battery management system based on ZigBee communication protocol and point-to-point wireless topology has been presented. Microcontrollers and wireless modules are employed to process the information from several sensors (voltage, temperature and SOC) and transmit to the display devices respectively. The WBMS multistage charge balancing system offering more effective and efficient responses for several numbers of series connected battery cells. The concept of double tier switched capacitor converter and resonant switched capacitor converter is used for reducing the charge balancing time of the cells. The balancing result for 2 cells and 16 cells are improved by 15.12% and 25.3% respectively. The balancing results are poised to become better when the battery cells are increased.

Modelling of an advanced charging system for electric vehicles

Climate Change is recognized as one of the greatest environmental problem facing the World today and it has long been appreciated by governments that reducing the impact of the internal combustion (IC) engine powered motor vehicle has an important part to play in addressing this threat. In Malaysia, IC engine powered motor vehicle accounts almost 90% of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The need to reduce the emission is paramount, as Malaysia has pledged to reduce 40% of CO2 intensity by 2020 from 2005 level by 25% of improvement in average fuel consumption. . The introduction of electric vehicles (EVs) is one of the initiatives. However in terms of percentage, the electric vehicles have not been commonly used by people nowadays and one of the reasons is lack in charging infrastructure especially when cars are on the road. The aim of this study is to simulate and model an advanced charging system for the charging infrastructure of EVs /HEVs all over the nation with slow charging mode with charging current 25 A, medium charging mode with charging current 50 A and fast charging mode with charging current 100 A. The slow charging mode is proposed for residence, medium charging mode for office parking lots, and fast charging mode is called fast charging track for charging station on road. With three modes charger topology, consumers could choose a suitable mode for their car based on their need. The simulation and experiment of advanced charging system has been conducted on a scale down battery pack of nominal voltage of 3.75 V and capacity of 1020 mAh. Result shows that the battery could be charging less than 1 hour with fast charging mode. However, due to limitation of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) power grid, the maximum 50 A current is considered to be the optimized passive mode for the EV’s battery charging system. The developed advanced charger prototype performance has been compared with the simulation result and conventional charger performance, the maximum variation has been found 15%, this closed agreement between the advanced charger prototype, simulation model and conventional charger validate the prototype model. Furthermore, based on the result presented in this report, the battery to be charged up to 85% of its rated capacity by constant current mode only rather than continue with constant voltage, which could shorten the battery charging time by 16% and prolong the battery life by 10%.

A qualitative approach to mobile robot navigation using RFID

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system allows automatic identification of items with RFID tags using radio-waves. As the RFID tag has its unique identification number, it is also possible to detect a specific region where the RFID tag lies in. Recently it is widely been used in mobile robot navigation, localization, and mapping both in indoor and outdoor environment. This paper represents a navigation strategy for autonomous mobile robot using passive RFID system. Conventional approaches, such as landmark or dead-reckoning with excessive number of sensors, have complexities in establishing the navigation and localization process. The proposed method satisfies less complexity in navigation strategy as well as estimation of not only the position but also the orientation of the autonomous robot. In this research, polar coordinate system is adopted on the navigation surface where RFID tags are places in a grid with constant displacements. This paper also presents the performance comparisons among various grid architectures through simulation to establish a better solution of the navigation system. In addition, some stationary obstacles are introduced in the navigation environment to satisfy the viability of the navigation process of the autonomous mobile robot.

Analysis of the internal temperature of the cells in a battery pack during SOC balancing

Lithium-ion batteries are more suitable for the application of electric vehicle due to high energy and power density compared to other rechargeable batteries. However, the battery pack temperature has a great impact on the overall performance, cycle life, normal charging-discharging behaviour and even safety. During rapid charge transferring process, the internal temperature may exceed its allowable limit (460C). In this paper, an analysis of internal temperature during charge balancing and discharging conditions is presented. Specific interest is paid to the effects of temperature on the different rate of ambient temperature and discharging current. Matlab/Simulink Li-ion battery model and quasi-resonant converter base balancing system are used to study the temperature effect. Rising internal temperature depends on the rate of balancing current and ambient temperature found in the simulation results.

The prospects of panel style nano-battery technology for EV/HEV

CO2 reduction is a fundamental driver for lightweight in automotive. Reducing weight of automobile helps improve energy consumption and reduction of CO2 emission. It is estimated that if the weight of automobile can reduced by 100 kg, it saves approximately 8.5 g of CO2 per 100 km travelling. The introduction of EVs is one of the initiatives for the reduction of CO2 emission. This paper presents the prospects of panel style nano-battery technology for EV/HEV builds with CuO filler epoxy resin (ER) sandwiched by Carbon Fiber (CF) and Lithium (Li) plate. The proposed body panel of EV/HEV would reduce the car weight about 20%, contribute on electrical energy storing and releasing capacity of 1.5 kWh (10% of car total power requirement), and CuO filler ER provides the heat insulation for the car which would save about 10% power consumption of air conditioning system. Aluminum laminated polypropylene film has considered with the proposed body panel to prevent EMC effect to the passenger cabin. It is expected that the proposed panel style nano-battery of EV would save 6.00 kWh battery energy equivalent to 2.81 litre of petrol and prevent 3.081 kg of CO2 emission for every 100 km travelling.

Design field controller for level, flow, temperature and networking using YOKOGAWA DCS

The application of field controller is an emerging area on most engineering field. The digital field controller has been widely used in the industry since ages ago. In this project, distributed field controller is designed to measure temperature, level and flow of the system used in Industrial Automation using YOKOGAWA DCS network. Here local controller integrated with Distributed Control System by using Yokogawa CENTUM CS 3000. The field controller was designed based on the field plant. Apart from that, a networking was done through Ethernet, which work in dual redundancy.