A Method of Appropriate Electrical Array Reconfiguration Management for Photovoltaic
Powered Car
Yingrak Auttawaitkul*,Boonnua Pungsiri*, Kosin Chammongthai*, and Makoto Okuda**
*King Moungkuts University of Technology Thonburee, Bangkok, Thailand
**Nippon Institute of Technology, Saitama, Japan
Abstract
The acceleration from the starting state of
photovoltaic powered car is not favorable when
compared with that of the current automobiles. This is
resulted from the limitation of photovoltaic qualification,
In this paper,a method of electrical array reconfiguration
managem%ntwhich is appropriate for effective driving a
photovoltaic (PV) powered car is presented. For the
purpose of increasing the acceleration, the methods of
Electrical Array Reconfriguration (EAR; parallel, series
and parallel-series) are used and managed according to
the driving states (Initial movement state, speed
accelerating state,high speed state). Since the parallel
provides much voltage and torquelit is used for
maintaining the velocity at a certain speed. Then the
parallel-series is used for accelerating speed after the car
started while both speed and torque is required. And
fuzzy logic is applied to determine the electrical array
reconfiguration automatically according to the driving
situation. For testing the efficiency, a photovoltaic
powered car with 2.65 square meters solar cell is
established, The results of initial torque of the motor in
various types aare that the parallil provides 1.4 times
more torque than the parallel-series type, and more than
that of the series type by 2.5 times. So the parallel array
reconfiguration type is suitable for starting a car. In
testing the maximum speed of a motor, the results are
that the series type has motor speed 2 times more than
the parallel-series type, and 4.1 times more than the
parallel one. So the series array is appropriate for car at
high speed. The acceleration of a motor in photovoltaic
powered car by this method revealed the better results
approximately by 38 percent when compared with the
series type which is the best for the unarranged cell.
1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, energy used for driving a car such
as oil and natural gas decreases gradually, the result of
such fuel is the pollution from the engine combustion
which increases by the number of cars, In many
countries solar cell energy has been used to substitute the
use of the fuel. Solar cell energy does not create the
pollution, but still has to be developed into effective use.
From the report of solar cell car racing[l],[2] which
many countries participated in the USA and Australia.
There are inany cars in the competition and the speed
increases gradully which is now more than 86 Kmhr
01998IEEE.
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without the use of battery compared with the former
speed of 56-64 Kmhr. The better speed results from
many compartments such as the efficiency of solar cell,
energy for driving the car.
In the reserch field of photovoltaic powered
car, there is no report directly related electrical array
reconfiguration. But in the solar cell field, a lot of
researches are presented.
In the solar cell research for the most benefits,
Salameh and Liang[3] described electrical array
reconfiguration controller and optimum switching using
the intensity of sun light, Fujimaki and Yoda[4]
proposed a new maximum power control method using
arithmatic equation. In the research of solar cell energy
and DC motors. Roger[S] presented the theory of the
direct coupling between DC motors and photovoltaic
solar arrays, Appelbaum[6] researched the use of energy
of starting and steady-state characteristics of DC motors
powered by solar cell generators, Khouzam and
Khouzam[7] calculated optimum size of photovoltaic
generat or a n d b a t t e r y against d i rec t -co u p I e
electromechanical load, In the research about the
performance, Salameh and Dagher[S] researched the
effect of electrical array reconfiguration on the
performance of a PV for powered water pump. The use
of electrical array reconfiguration with a water pump
results in a good efficiency when compared with series
type reconfiguration by using the density of sun light to
control the change of reconfiguration.
This paper persents the methods of electrical
array reconfiguration that is suitable to a photovoltaic
powered car. This methol is different from that of the
water pump which needs only the maximum power. But
photovoltaic powered car needs both torque and speed
which is changed by the appropriate situation. And in
this paper, the switching of electrical reconfiguration is
controled for automatic reconfiguration by fuzzy
controller.
2. BASIC CONCEPT
There are three types of array in electrical array
reconfiguration as shown in Fig. 1.
The relationship between current and voltage of
electrical array reconfiguration as shown in Fig.2
indicates as following.
1 .Parallel type provides much current and low voltage.
2.Parallel- Series provides moderate current and voltage.
201
3.Series type provides low current but high voltage.
Torque (T) Speed (N)

41, 1V

Parrallel
\ - j - i *-4
1
Parrallel Pamellel+Series Series

21, 2v Fig.3. Torque and Speed provides by electrical array

reconfiguration

High torque will provide low speed and in

contrast high speed will provide low torque, from the
Parrallel-Series qualification of solar cell arrangement and structure of

e
the motor, it can be concluded as shown in fig.3 that:
In the initial movement, the most important is the
torque. Parallel type should be the most appropriate
because it provides the highest torque. When the car
need high speed, we need high voltage and dont need
11,4v
t- - - high torque, so the series type is chosen,
To switch the electrical array reconfiguration:
Series Fuzzy control system in quantity which can be
Fig. 1 Three types of electrical array used in Electrical array reconfiguration for the car. From
the concept of cell arrangement and qualification of
motor, it indicates that when a car is in initial movement,
much torque and high current is needed. When a car is
moving, moderate current and voltage is needed, and
4
A
Y - Parrallel when a car is at high speed, high voltage is needed.

3 - Parrallel-Series

- - ...............
7 Series

1 _......-....-.-.,I_..-.

0 t

Fig.2 The relationship between current and voltage of

electrical array reconfiguration
A :steady state B :low speed C :high speed P :pamallel
The qualification of the motor indicates that type P+S :pamallel-series S :series
current has relation with torque, voltage has relation with
speed.

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 The mentioned condition can be concluded as
following.
A-B is initial interval ,pay attention to the torque.
If Ip>Iw,Isthen parallel type.
If Iw>Ip,Isthen parallel-series type,
If Ip~Ip+gIsthen I max (parallel type)
B-C is speed up interval, pay attention to the voltage.
If Vs>Vp,Vp+, then series type.
If V,,> Vp,V, then parallel-series type,
If V, zVp+,zVpthen V max (series type)

3. EXPERIMENTS AND DISCUSSION

To test the performance of this method, a
prototype of photovoltaic powered car using electrical
array reconfiguration management was constructed. The
experiment to confirm the relationship between current
and voltage from electrical array reconfiguration was
done at the average light intensity 474 watts/m2 , Fig 6. The time required for starting a car by series &
temperature 3 7 3 , the result is shown in fig.5 by EAR
comparing with the calculation result. From the graph, it
can be seen that the calculation result is higher than the
experiment result due to the external cell factors and
internal cell factors. For internal factors, the resistance
was changed when electrical reconfiguration was
managed. For external factors, all angles of the sun light
against the solar cell are not equal, dust contaminates the
cell, etc. And the experiment for evaluating the
performance of electrical array reconfiguration
management was done at 2,150 rpm., 542.5 watts/m2 of
light intensity and 49 c., the results reveal in fig.6 that
the series required more time to start a car and accelerate
to 2,150 rpm. Than EAR by 37.49%.

Fig 7. Photovoltaic Powered Car

4. CONCLUSION
According to the problems of not good
acceleration of the photovoltaic powered car at the
present time, this paper presents the method of Electrical
Array Reconfiguration management that is suitable for a
photovoltaic powered car. The acceleration of the car
becomes better by 37.49% when compared with no
EAR. The experiment shows that the management of the
power to sit the car in appropriate situation will enhance
the effectiveness of the solar car. The result of the
experiments confirms that EAR can be used in a
photovoltaic powered car.

Fig.5 The relationship between current and voltage of
electrical array reconfiguration by calculation and
experiment,
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~.
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