Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bachelor-Thesis
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Abbreviations
AVALON Autonomous Sailboat named "AVALON"
MPPT Maximum Power Point Tracker
SOC State of Charge
SSA Students Sail Autonomously (Building Team of the AVALON)
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Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 About the Microtransat Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 About the Team SSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 Energy Collection 3
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Photovoltaic Power Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2.1 Types of Solar Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2.2 Maximum Power Point Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Wind Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Burning of Fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4.1 Engine-Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.4.2 Fuel Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.5 Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3 Energy Storage 11
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2 Electrochemical Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.2.1 Types of Electrochemical Batteries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.3 Chemical Energy Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.4 Other Energy Storage Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5 Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4 Simulation 17
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2 Description of the Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.1 Counter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.2 Energy Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2.3 Energy Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.2.4 Energy Consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.3 Simulation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3.1 Simulation of Ireland Sailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.3.2 Simulation of Passat Sailing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
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5.3 Fuel Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
A Data Sheets 39
A.1 Sunpower SPR-90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
A.2 EFOY pro 1200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
A.3 A123 ANR26650M1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
A.4 BMZ BM26650ZTC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
C Rules Microtransat 51
D Irradiance MATLABr Function of Moix Pierre-Olivier 55
E MATLABr Simulinkr Simulation Structure 63
F Detail View of Power Supply System Assembly 65
Bibliography 67
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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Objective
The main objective of the AVALON project is to get an autonomous sail boat across
the Atlantic Ocean. The time in which the boat is reaching its target is only secondary.
More important is that the boat can withstand extreme weather conditions which are
no exception on the Atlantic Ocean. Of course this also includes the power supply
system. All components have to be mechanically and electronically robust which means
that they have to withstand extreme movements of the boat as well as electronic spikes
when it tacks which means that sail and rudder motors are running simultaneously with
full power.
This bachelor thesis is about designing, conguring and tuning the power supply system
of the boat. It is extremely important that the power supply does not fail. It has to
be completely autarkic. If there is no power provided all systems on board would
shut down; communication would no longer be possible and the boat would become
uncontrollable.
The necessary electrical power is supplied by two square meters of solar cells and a
methanol fuel cell. Later will be explained how the decision fell onto these components
and how the dierent technologies work; what their advantages and disadvantages are.
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Chapter 1. Introduction 2
also with resources and know-how. The assignment of the electronics and control
team is to look for the necessary electronic components and tune those according to
their function, this also includes the power supply system.
Chapter 2
Energy Collection
2.1 Introduction
This Chapter will brie
y explain the most common ways of autonomously collecting
electric energy. A short explanation of how the dierent technologies work in principle
will be given. The end of the chapter covers the decision made in the case of the
AVALON project.
One way of collecting electric energy is the principle of photovoltaics used in solar
cells. Solar cells are able to convert irradiation energy from sunlight directly into
electric energy.
As shown in Figure 2.1 when sunlight hits the surface of the solar cells electrons can
be moved around in the silicon surface. They leave holes behind which represent the
positively charged layer or p-layer. The electrons move into the negatively charged
layer or n-layer which is separated from the p-layer through a junction. This principle
is called p-n junction.
Solar technology is a booming eld of the renewable energy sources. Every year
the number of solar cells in use worldwide doubles. The advantages of this kind of
power conversion is that there are no moving parts involved which can get damaged
or jammed. On the other hand quite a big surface is needed to convert a substantial
amount of power. At night the solar cells are not producing any power which means
there has to be a possibility of storing energy during the day.
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Chapter 2. Energy Collection 4
Silicon solar cells are the most common solar cells on the marked. As the name is
suggesting they use the semiconductor silicon to generate power. There are two main
types of silicon solar cells the mono- and polycrystalline cells. The monocrystalline cells
(Figure 2.2) are made of just one single silicon crystal which is expensive but promises
a high eciency of up to 25%. The polycrystalline cells (Figure 2.3) are made of
liquid silicon which results in many crystals with dierent directions. This method is
more cost ecient but less power ecient because the contact line of two crystals
constitute a resistance. The eciency of these cells reach up to 20% depending on the
quality. A thin lm solar cell (Figure 2.4) is basically any material coated with a thin
layer of a photovoltaic material (Cadmium Telluride, Copper indium gallium selenide,
Thin-lm silicon, etc.). The advantage of this kind of solar cell is its low cost and the
fact that it can be applied on any material, also
exible ones. The disadvantage is its
poor eciency of maximal 12%. There are also other semiconducting materials used
in photovoltaics but because of lack of importance, they will not be documented in
this thesis.
The most ecient cells today are the multiple junction solar cells (Figure 2.5) which
consist of several layers of usually monocrystalline silicon cells stacked on top of each
other. They are very new and experimental. These cells are not available on the mass
marked and are only used in space application and research. The record of eciency
with this technology is almost 43%.
5 2.2. Photovoltaic Power Generation
Figure 2.2: Monocrystalline solar cell [2] Figure 2.3: Polycrystalline solar cell [3]
Figure 2.4: Thin lm solar cell Figure 2.5: Three junction solar cells of the
[8] spacecraft DAWN [9]
A maximum power point tracker is a device which optimizes the power generation of
the solar panels. It does that in controlling the voltage applied to the solar panel. This
voltage is depending on the solar irradiance on the solar cells and the temperature.
If the voltage applied on the solar module would be constant it would only produce
maximum power at certain conditions. If it is set do produce maximum power at sunny
conditions in midday it would'nt produce any power at a later or earlier time or at bad
weather. If it is set to bad weather it would'nt produce maximum power at clear sky.
A maximum power point tracker can increase the eciency of a solar module by up
to 25%. Figure 2.6 shows an example of maximum power point tracking and Figure
2.7 its dependency on temperature and sunlight.
Chapter 2. Energy Collection 6
Figure 2.7: Dependency of Maximum Power Point to Temperature and Sunlight [18]
Figure 2.8: Wind generator with a Figure 2.9: Wind generator with a
standard rotor [4] Darrieus rotor [5]
The big advantage of this kind of power generation device is its small size compared to
the amount of power generated. The disadvantage is that those devices have moving
parts and are therefore in regular need of maintenance. The rotor can jam or even
break. To convert power the wind turbine needs a fairly strong wind. Dead times are
unavoidable which means like for the solar cells (Section 2.2) a way to store energy is
necessary. The wind turbine has to be mounted at a certain hight to produce a fair
amount of power which is not always easy to realize. Also the surface of the rotor
can act as drag to a sail boat while it is sailing upwind.
Figure 2.10: Honda petrol generator (450 x 240 x 380 mm) [6]
Using a fuel cell is a very sophisticated way of burning fuel. The eciency is signif-
icantly higher than with a engine-generator. There are many dierent types of fuel
cells with dierent properties. Some of them can even work in both direction which
means they can not only convert fuel into electrical power but also electrical power
into fuel. There are not many complete solutions of fuel cells available on the mass
market. The rest of the section is only looking at the direct-methanol fuel cell shown
in Figure 2.11 which is a complete solution available to purchase for everyone.
The heart of a fuel cell is the stack. It consists of multiple single fuel cells which
themselves consist of an anode and a cathode separated through a membrane (see
Figure 2.12). The membrane is only penetrable for the positively charged protons. The
negatively charged electrons have to take the way around and by doings so produce
a current. Methanol and Water enter the anode side. The protons of the methanol
diuse through the membrane and carbon dioxide leaves the cell as emission. On the
cathode side air enters. The oxygen reacts with the protons from the methanol to
water which is used again on the anode side of the cell. The chemical formula for this
reaction is:
The big advantage of a fuel cell compared to an engine-generator is its good eciency.
The fuel cell shown in Figure 2.11 for example has an eciency of 26%. The best
engine-generators reach only an eciency of 15%. As a result of this high eciency
the fuel cell doesn't produce as much heat as the engine-generator and it runs without
vibration because it doesn't have any mentionable moving parts.
9 2.5. Decision
2.5 Decision
Based on the results of the power simulation (see Chapter 4), the size of the boat
and the objective of the project AVALON (see Chapter 1), the choice for the primary
power supply fell on monocristalline solar cells. The area of the deck is large enough
to harbor four solar panels SPR-90 from Sunpower (see Appendix A.1). Solar cells are
a very reliable and low maintenance solution for an autonomous power supply if there
is enough suitable surface provided. If there isn't enough area a wind turbine would be
a possible alternative. If there is no possibility to mount the wind turbine or maintain
it there is always the possibility of an engine-generator or a fuel cell. In theory the
solar panels alone would provide enough power for the electronics on board but for
redundancy reasons the boat also carries an auxiliary power supply in form of a direct
methanol fuel cell (see Appendix A.2). The fuel cell is programmed to activate when
Chapter 2. Energy Collection 10
the voltage of the batteries reaches a voltage of 22.5 volts. This relates to a charge
capacity of 20 to 30%. It charges the battery as long as the voltage stays under 27
volts, after that it shuts down again. This prevents the batteries of under charging
and ensures a constant power supply of the system. AVALON will have about 30 litres
of methanol on board which enables the fuel cell to charge the batteries 25 times from
30 to 80% charge capacity.
Chapter 3
Energy Storage
3.1 Introduction
In order to ensure a continuous power supply a way to store energy is a necessity.
At night or in bad weather the solar cells will not deliver much energy so the stored
energy will be used to supply the system with power.
There are many dierent possibilities to store energy:
Electrochemical (batteries)
Thermal
This chapter will shortly explain the most common methods of storing energy, the
working principle of the technologies mentioned and in the end, it will describe how
the energy storage was realized in the AVALON project.
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Chapter 3. Energy Storage 12
Lead Battery
Lead-acid or lead-gel batteries are used in a wide range of applications like cars or o-
grid systems. Their biggest advantage is their electrical robustness and mechanical
durability. These batteries can be over- and undercharged several times without loss
of capacity. The only problem with these batteries is their weight. Lead-Acid batteries
13 3.3. Chemical Energy Storage
are with a specic energy density of 30 Wh/kg more than eight times heavier than
the very light lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium-Iron Battery
Lithium-iron batteries are very new and have a very long lifespan of up to 4000 cycles
that means the battery can be charged 4000 times before it loses its capacity. This
battery is used mostly in applications like electric wheel chairs, golf carts or even
electric cars because it can output a lot of power. A disadvantage of this battery is
when connected in series the single cells can discharge unequally which means they
have to be balanced with an additional electronic device. The specic energy density of
this battery is 110 Wh/kg which is much better than the lead based batteries but not
as good as the lithium-ion batteries. The data sheet of a lithium-iron cell is available
in Appendix A.3.
Lithium-Manganese Battery
The properties of the lithium-manganese battery are very similar to the ones of the
lithium-iron battery. The specic energy density is with 100 Wh/kg a little bit lower
and the lifespan is also not as long than the one of the lithium-iron battery. This cell
is mostly used in small applications like power tools. One advantage of this battery
compared to the lithium-iron battery is that it doesn't have to be balanced and that
its charge characteristic is easier to adapt to the rest of the system because its SOC
can be related more easily to its voltage (see data sheet in Appendix A.4).
Lithium-Ion Battery
The lithium-ion batteries are very powerful and light. They are used in modern elec-
tronic devices like laptops and mobile phones. This battery is the lightest on the
market with a specic energy density of up to 238 Wh/kg. The big disadvantage of
this cell is its very specic charge- and discharge characteristic. The cell can, when
charged wrongly, heat up and lose its capacity very quickly. In rare cases, the battery
can even explode. A charge- and discharge plot of a lithium-ion cell is available in
Appendix B.1.
3.5 Decision
The only viable solution for the AVALON project are rechargeable batteries. That
leaves the four dierent secondary batteries mentioned in Section 3.2.1. If just dura-
bility and charge robustness were weighted, the lead based battery (see Table 3.1)
would constitute the best solution. But because weight is also an important factor
and the keel is too small to place the batteries there, the idea to use lead based energy
storage had to be dropped. Lithium-ion batteries are too dangerous for an autonomous
vessel which is unsupervised for up to six months. The probability of damaging the
batteries or even blow up the boat is too high. The two remaining options are very
similar in properties and weight. The choice fell onto the lithium-manganese batteries
15 3.5. Decision
because they are cheaper, they don't have to be balanced and they are not much heav-
ier than the lithium-iron cells. If there would be the possibility to ensure the safety of
the lithium-ion batteries they would probably be the rst choice. This would require a
long series of simulations and tests which would exceed the time frame of this project.
As mentioned in Chapter 2 there will also be a fuel cell on board which requires
methanol as secondary energy carrier. The fuel cell is a back up system which only
activates in emergency situations that is when the capacity of the batteries drop to a
point where they can't supply the system much longer, e.g. during a long period of
bad weather.
Chapter 3. Energy Storage 16
Chapter 4
Simulation
4.1 Introduction
In order to nd out how many solar panels are needed and what conguration to
chose it is essential to conduct a simulation. Because the solar irradiation angle and
intensity are not constant during the day, it is essential to have a function which can
simulate it as accurately as possible. Moix Pierre-Olivier has written such a function
in MATLABr (see Appendix D). With the help of this function, the power output of
the solar panels could be calculated fairly accurate. Of course the power requirements
of the electronics and the motors are also taken into account.
The simulation consists of four dierent parts; the counter which counts the time, the
energy supply, the energy storage and the energy consumption. The four parts will be
explained individually while the complete simulation is to be found in Appendix E.
4.2.1 Counter
The counter is the part of the simulation which counts the time passing. It is important
that the initial time is set correctly. Because the lengths of the days depends distinctly
on the date. The rst box in Figure 4.1 is the counter itself which counts the time
in seconds. The second box called "GMT shift in hours" which is not very important
for long time simulations calculates the time variations of dierent time zones. The
third and fourth box determine the starting time of the simulation, it can be set to an
exact hour at an exact date.
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Chapter 4. Simulation 18
The purpose of the energy supply part seen in Figure 4.3 is to summarize the power
supplied by the dierent sources which are the solar panels and the fuel cell. The
geographic position is determining the global position of the solar panels. This is
necessary because depending on the date the days are of various length at dierent
places. The ground re
ection or albedo factor is a factor which is dened by the type
of surface surrounding the panels. It indicates the amount of light re
ected from the
ground. The albedo factors of the most common surfaces are listed in Table 4.1.
In the lower left corner of Figure 4.3 are the solar panels situated and the heading of
the boat. On the deck of the AVALON are two dierent congurations of solar panels.
Each side of the deck contains 1.1m2 of solar cells with a slope of 10 each (see Figure
4.2). Beneath the box with the solar surface of the bow panel is another box where
the eciency of the solar panels is included. Combined with the irradiance function
mentioned in Section 4.1 Simulinkr is now able to calculate the power sopplied by
the solar cells at any given time. In the upper right corner, there is a box called fuel
cell where the average power output of the fuel cell can be included.
19 4.2. Description of the Simulation
A safety factor is also included, located in the upper right corner of Figure 4.3. This
factor is necessary because the irradiance function is always assuming clear sky which
obviously is not an assumption that can be made due to clouds, shade from the sail
or salt accumulated on the solar panels surface. The factor is currently set to 0.5
which means the simulation takes only half of the possible amount of power supplied
in perfect conditions.
Chapter 4. Simulation 20
The energy storage part (Figure 4.4) includes basically a simulation of the batteries. It
includes the initial charge and maximum charge of the batteries as well as the charge
and discharge eciencies. The charge and discharge eciencies are a result of internal
resistance of the batteries and other resistances from cabling inside the boat. The
white box "Charge" is used to plot the remaining energy inside the batteries. This
part has the produced and the required power as input.
21 4.2. Description of the Simulation
Two dierent parts of the journey have to be simulated. The most critical part of the
journey is right at the start in south Ireland because there the days are fairly short and
the weather is usually quite cloudy. The red arrow in the top right corner of Figure
4.6 shows the place an the direction the boat is going at that stage. The second red
arrow, in the center of the picture shows the Passat route which is the main part of
the boats journey and takes the longest.
For the simulation of the Ireland sailing the coordinates are set to 51 N / 9 W which
relates to the Atlantic Ocean just south of Ireland. The direction of the boat is set to
south. In Figure 4.7 one can see that both solar conguration (starboard and port)
produce the same amount of power but shifted in time which is obvious when the boat
is traveling south and the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Figure 4.8 shows
the power produced by the solar cells. The maximum power is obviously generated at
midday and amounts to 250 watts. This number is already divided by 2 which is the
dened safety margin. That means the actual maximal power adds up to 500 watts
in optimal conditions.
Chapter 4. Simulation 24
Figure 4.7: Power of the Sun during Figure 4.8: Power produced by solar
three days module during three days
The most important value is the remaining energy inside the batteries. Figure 4.9
shows a plot of the battery energy during three days. The horizontal plateaus occur
when the batteries are fully charged and there is still power provided by the solar panels.
Summarized, the simulation shows positive results because each day the batteries can
be recharged fully which means the power supply is assured.
power produced in the passat route is 300 watts which is 50 watts higher than near
Ireland.
Figure 4.10: Power of the sun during Figure 4.11: Power produced by solar
three days module during three days
The remaining energy in the batteries is plotted in Figure 4.12. In direct result of
the better energy production due to more sunlight the plateaus of the fully charged
batteries are longer than the ones in the Ireland simulation. The safety margin of
this simulation is again two. Although the weather is normally much sunnier than in
Ireland there is the possibility of accumulated salt on the solar cell which could result
in a lower power output.
5.1 Battery
The discharge characteristic of the battery is a very important matter in calibrating the
power supply system. Its value denes a fairly accurate estimation of the SOC of the
battery. To determine the discharge characteristic the battery has to be discharged
with the conditions existing on the boat. To do that the whole system was divided by
four which means that not all four battery packs were used but just one. Of course
also the power consumption and power generation had to be quartered. Only one solar
panel was used and the power consumption was realized with a 47
resistor which
results in a average power consumption of 13 watts. In the simulation (Chapter 4)
the power consumption was set to 40 watts which divided by four would result in a
usage of 10 watts but because of the time needed to discharge the battery and the
availability of the resistors the discharge power is chosen slightly higher rather than
lower. This does not substantially in
uence the test results and reduces the time of a
discharge cycle.
In Figure 5.1 is the plot of a discharge cycle of one lithium-manganese battery pack
with 70 single cells. The blue line represents the measured voltage of the cycle while
the red line shows the state of charge of the battery pack. This plot shows a fairly
exact dependency of the battery voltage to the state of charge. The example in Figure
5.1 shows that when the battery reaches 22.5 volts and the fuel cell is activated the
SOC is at 10.3%. The discharge was realized with a constant resistor which results
in a slowly decreasing power consumption and therefore the slightly curved SOC line.
The 100% mark was set at the nominal capacity of the battery which is 600 Wh.
Because the Cells are very new their capacity is still a little bit above that.
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Chapter 5. Component Based Testing 28
There was a thin layer of pollen on the solar panel which could result in the
slight decrease of power
The solar panel has not the eciency issued on the data sheet (Appendix A.1)
The albedo eect of the asphalt around the test site is lower than the 0.15 which
is its average albedo factor (see Table 4.1)
29 5.2. Solar Modules and MPPTs
Summarized is this test result well in the margin of error expected and can be stated
as a success.
Figure 5.3: Solar Panel with Salt Coat Figure 5.4: Clean Solar Panel
For time reasons no cleaning system for the solar modules was designed which means
it has to be tested how much the salt compromises the functionality of them. A
solar panel was irradiated with a constant light source consisting of two 500 watts
spotlights. Once the panel was coated in salt and once it was clean. The output
power measured with the salty panel was 5.4 watts and the one of the clean panel 7.4
watts. This result is rather satisfactory because it means that even with the salt coat
the functionality of the solar cells is still at 73%. The expectation guessed from the
look of the salty panel were much lower. The salt must therefore let a considerable
portion of the light pass through and the MPPT's set a new maximum power point
which makes the good result possible.
horizontal rows are covered the module is inactive. Figure 5.6 again shows which
horizontal rows were covered.
Figure 5.5: Vertical Partial Coverage of Figure 5.6: Horizontal Partial Coverage
Solar Panel of Solar Panel
This test shows that the outputted power very much depends on which exact cells
are severed from direct sunlight. In reality the cell will never be completely covered
because the sail is not completely blocking the sunlight and the water re
ects diuse
light onto the cells. This will reduce or even eliminate the partially covered cells
resistance.
Chapter 5. Component Based Testing 32
The fuel cell has its own control software which has to be adapted to our system
especially to our batteries. There are four dierent parameters which have to be set
to a suitable value. The rst one is the switch on voltage. When the battery is
reaching this voltage the fuel cell initiates and starts to charge the batteries. The
second one is the switch o voltage which is depending also on the switch o current.
When the fuel cell is charging and the batteries reach the switch o voltage it stops
increasing the voltage but lowers the current until this decreases below the switch o
current. Then the fuel cell shuts down. The fourth one is the reaction time which is
the time the voltage has to be below the switch on voltage or the switch o current
for the fuel cell to react. In Table 5.1 is a list of those parameters and their range.
At rst the lowest possible value for the switch on voltage was chosen because it is
essential to use the fuel cell only in emergencies which means just before the battery
is fully discharged. But while initiating the fuel cell at 22 volts a battery error occurred
because the voltage dropped too low under the additional load of the fuel cells initiation
procedure. The switch on voltage was then chosen half a volt higher at 22.5 volts.
The switch o voltage was chosen at its lowest value because it is not necessary to
ll the batteries completely. If for example the batteries are empty at 11:00 pm and
the fuel cell starts to charge. If it nishes just before dawn and there is a sunny day
this sun can not be stored because the batteries are already full. This would result in
wasted methanol which could have been used in a power emergency at a later time.
The switch o current was chosen at 1.8 ampere after testing which is just below
the maximum output of the fuel cell of 50 watts. This means shortly after reaching
the switch o voltage the switch o current will be reached too and the fuel cell
shuts down as early as possible. The nal value, the reaction time was chosen at
60 seconds. This time should not be too low because while the electric motors are
running the voltage drops. This voltage drop should not be the reason for the fuel cell
to initiate.
33 5.3. Fuel Cell
The graph of a charge cycle of the fuel cell is shown in Figure 5.7. A load of approx-
imately 48
was connected. Between the green lines the load was disconnected to
accelerate the charging and for comparison of the values. The purple line shows the
point where the switch o voltage is reached and the current constantly decreases
until the switch o current is reached. In this test the switch o current was set to
1.5 ampere, minus the approximately 0.5 ampere used by the attached load results
in the 1 ampere shown in Figure 5.7. The frequent voltage and current drops are a
result of the fuel cells operating mode. It has to refresh the stack approximately four
times an hour. To do so it has to shut down the fuel cells for a short period of time.
Chapter 5. Component Based Testing 34
Chapter 6
For the power supply system to work it has to be connected properly. First each solar
panel is connected with one MPPT. The MPPT's themselves are connected in parallel
to the batteries. The fuel cell is connected directly to the batteries without any device
in between. The software of the fuel cell is capable to charge the batteries directly.
Figure 6.1 shows a detailed electrical schematic.
The complete power supply system has to be mountable on the boat. The main
concern is to nd sucient space inside the hull of AVALON. In addition has to be
kept an eye on the weight distribution. The boat must not lean to the side nor to the
front or back. To achieve the stability along the roll axis the single components where
mounted right on it. The multiple components like the solar panels where mirrored on
it. The stability on the pitch axis was achieved through extensive testing while sailing
on the lake.
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Chapter 6. Connecting the System 36
Figure 6.2 shows the assembly of the power supply system. The solar panels (blue) are
mounted on the stern of the boat, two modules each side. They are connected to the
MPPT's (red) which themselves are connected to the batteries (green). These three
components form the main power supply, a detailed picture can be found in Appendix
F.
The fuel cell (orange) is connected in parallel to the main power supply. It is situated
in the bow of the boat. The methanol tank (brown) is mounted right in front of the
batteries. This arrangement does'nt make the connecting of the various components
very easy but it was the only way to ensure a more or less balanced weight distribution
even when the methanol tank is getting lighter while methanol is consumed.
Chapter 7
Conclusion
7.1 Outcome
The AVALON project and within the implementing of its power supply system was an
extraordinary experience. Countless hours are behind such a project but it is satisfying
to see results after such hard work. Figure 7.1 shows the nished boat. On the stern
of it two of the four solar panels are clearly visible and give the boat a futuristic look.
The goal of designing a fully autarkic and robust power supply system is reached as
far as one can tell at this point but more tests will be required. The Atlantic crossing
will be the nal test for the system. If it survives this the goal is reached indenitely.
37
Chapter 7. Conclusion 38
Several things could have been done dierently, if time would have allowed it. The
usage of the lighter lithium-ion batteries would have been possible with some additional
test and safety precautions. Further could the boat be designed slightly dierent to
harbor the power supply system more compact which would simplify the assembly of
the system and reduce its space requirements.
This power supply system could be used as it is or slightly customized on almost
any device or vehicle which requires an autarkic power supply. Its speciality is its
high redundancy and its light weight batteries. Also the energy storage through the
methanol is a advantage of this system because it is possible to store basically any
amount of energy required (of course with the cost of a higher weight).
7.2 Outlook
This power supply system as a part of the autonomous sailboat AVALON will sail at the
world championship for autonomous sailing in Portugal taking place in July 2009. In
September 2009 the crossing of the Atlantic will be the ultimate test for the AVALON
and its power supply system. Until then the power supply system will have had quite
some runtime and possible bugs and faults will hopefully be identied and xed.
Appendix A
Data Sheets
39
Appendix A. Data Sheets 40
47
Appendix B. Plots and Graphs 48
Rules Microtransat
Safety Rules:
1. Safety should take priority over winning.
2. Competitors may not attempt to inhibit other competitors by intentionally col-
liding with or obstructing their boat or by interfering with radio and electronic
equipment.
3. All radio equipment must comply with appropriate International regulations.
4. Each boat must be equipped with a navigation light which is turned one during
the hours of darkness. It should be visible from all directions and from a dis-
tance of at least 2 miles. The light maybe a single white light or a tri-colour
red/white/green light.
5. Boats must take appropriate precautions to avoid collisions. This might include
the use of radar re
ectors, brightly coloured panels, warning labels/
ags or AIS
transponders and avoiding known shipping lanes. Each team must decide the
exact precautions they wish to take.
6. The boat owner is liable for any damage caused to their boat or by their boat.
The organisers take no responsibility for any damage caused.
7. Boats must remain outside any dened exclusion zones.
8. The organisers will only arrange permission for the boats to operate in the waters
of the country of departure. If permission is not obtainable then the launch will
take place in international waters. Competitors are responsible for arranging
permission for their boat to enter the waters of their destination country and
other countries along the way. Competitors are recommended to remain in
international waters where possible.
51
Appendix C. Rules Microtransat 52
position will be provided on this website. Any boat which fails to transmit for
more than 10 consecutive days will be disqualied.
2. In adition to transmiting position data, each boat should keep a record onboard
of its position at least once every 24 hours. A copy of this must be presented
to the jury upon completion.
3. Competitors may transmit status information such as battery state from their
boats.
4. During the race competitors may not transmit any information to their boats,
including new waypoints, weather information or software updates. Any competi-
tor which does will be disqualied. However if a competitor wishes to implement
such features for use in an emergency or after the race, then they may do so
on the understanding that their use during the race will result in disqualication.
The jury may request to examine satellite phone bills, log les or computer code
if they suspect data has been sent to the boat.
The competition:
1. The aim of the competition is simple, to sail an autonomous sailing boat between
Europe and the Caribbean in the fastest possible time.
2. The competition will start over the course of a week, competitors may launch
at any time during this week. The start date is intended to be during September
2009. However the exact dates are still to be conrmed.
3. The start point will be conrmed at a later date but is expected to be o the
South West coast of Ireland.
4. The nishing line is the line of longitude between 10.00 degrees North, 60.00
degrees West and 25.00 degrees North 60.00 degrees West. Before departing,
each team must choose a target area of 50km diameter along this line. A boat
will only be considered to have nished the race when it reaches this 50km
target, even if it has already crossed the nish line.
53
Judging Criteria:
1. How quickly the boat crosses the Atlantic between the designated start point
and the team's target end point.
2. A handicap will be calculated by the jury based on the boat's hull length using
the following formula: Time Corrected = Time * square root(length in me-
ters)/square root(4 meters)
3. In the event of no boat reaching the nishing line, no winner will be declared.
4. The result will be given by the jury within one week of the last boat arriving
or giving up. During this time each competitor will submit a complete log of
positions (minimum of 1 every 24 hours) along with any contest or comment to
the jury and to all other teams.
Appendix C. Rules Microtransat 54
Appendix D
55
Appendix D. Irradiance MATLABr Function of Moix Pierre-Olivier 56
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% not modified
timezone=round(longitude*24/360); % [hours], West>0
%We place ourself at Greenwich time in any case
%as basis, this will be much easier:
ts0=ts0-timezone*60*60;
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Limits
max_incidence_angle=87*pi/180; %To choose with cell properties
cosmin=cos(max_incidence_angle); % For the limit of direct irradiance over this there
% is total reflectance or the sun is behind the cell
fminDiff=0.2; % minimum diffuse fraction
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%Computation of the time
day=fix(ts0/86400); %tso is given in seconds and 60*60*24=86400
if day>365
disp(' You entered a time over 365 day ');
day=day-365;
end
%the legal hour is
year=fix(day/365); %not really used
hour=fix((ts0-(day+365*year)*86400)/(60*60));
minutes=fix((ts0-(day+365*year)*86400)-hour*60*60)/60;
57
for i=1:12
if day<=sum(number_days_in_month(1:i))
month=i;
break
end
end
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% declination
del=23.45*(pi/180)*sin(2*pi*(284+day)/365); % [rad]
cosdel=cos(del);
sindel=sin(del);
da=2*pi*day/365;
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% sunrise and sunset solar times [s]
omega_s=acos(-sindel/cosdel*sinphi/cosphi); %hour angle at sunrise 1.6.10
tsunrise=43200*(1-omega_s/pi);
tsunset=43200*(1+omega_s/pi);
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% et = equation of time, in seconds,
% correction due to the speed variation of the earth around the sun
et=(0.0072*cos(da)-0.0528*cos(2*da)-0.0012*cos(3*da)...
-0.1229*sin(da)-0.1565*sin(2*da)-0.0041*sin(3*da))*3600;
Appendix D. Irradiance MATLABr Function of Moix Pierre-Olivier 58
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% time difference and other constants
tdiff=et+3600*(timezone-longitude/15)-day*86400;
tsSol0=ts0+tdiff; % solar times, one day range
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% solar angles (Duffie & Beckman, pp 15 ff)
ha=pi*(1-tsSol0/43200); % this is the omega in the book, ha is for hour angle
sinha=sin(ha);
cosha=cos(ha);
beta=pi/180*slope;
sin_beta=sin(beta);
cos_beta=cos(beta);
gam=pi/180*orien;
singam=sin(gam);
cosgam=cos(gam);
cost=sindel*sinphi*cos_beta-sindel*cosphi*sin_beta*cosgam...
+cosdel*cosphi*cos_beta*cosha+cosdel*sinphi*sin_beta*cosgam*cosha...
+cosdel*sin_beta*singam*sinha; %equation 1.6.2
if (abs(cost)>1+eps)
error(['*** solar: cos(t)=',num2str(cost)]);
end
incidence_angle=acos(cost); % [rad]
h=pi/2-acos(cosz); %sun height h (called alpha s in the book), complement of the zenith a
sin_h=sin(h);
cos_h=cos(h);
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Solar angle for which the sun azimut is > pi/2 or < -pi/2, this happens for days longer
% In that case we must determine in which quadrant we are
% equation 1.6.6g
omega_ew=acos(sindel/cosdel*cosphi/sinphi);
59
% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% %With the notations of the book:
sinz=sqrt(1-cosz*cosz);
sina=cosdel*sinha/sinz; % this is eq 1.6.6b a is for gamma prime s
if (abs(ha)<=omega_ew), C1=1;
else C1=-1; end
if ((phi-del)>=0), C2=1;
else C2=-1; end
if ((ha)>=0), C3=1;
else C3=-1; end
gamma_s=C1*C2*asin(sina)+C3*(1-C1*C2)*pi/2;
absgamma_s=abs(gamma_s);
azimut_angle=gamma_s;
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Radiation for a completely clear sky
% reference: T.Markus, E.Morris, "Building, Climate and Energy",
% Pitman, London (1980)
end
qhtotCS=qhdirCS+qhdiffCS;
% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% % Radiation for a completely clear sky
% % reference: Duffie & Beckman: "Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes" 2.8
% % Hottel method 1976
% %
%
% %atmospheric parameters:
% a0_star=0.4237-0.00821*(6-altitude/1000)^2;
% a1_star=0.5055+0.00595*(6.5-altitude/100)^2;
% k_star=0.2711+0.01858*(2.5-altitude/1000)^2;
%
% %corrections factors for climate types
% if abs(latitude)>65
% climate='Subarctic summer';
% r0=0.99;
% r1=0.99;
% rk=1.01;
% elseif abs(latitude)<20
% climate='Tropical'
% r0=0.95;
% r1=0.98;
% rk=1.02;
% else
% if month>3&month<9
% climate='Midlattitude summer';
% r0=0.97;
% r1=0.99;
% rk=1.02;
% else
% climate='Midlattitude winter';
% r0=1.03;
% r1=1.01;
% rk=1.00;
% end
% end
%
61
% a0=a0_star*r0;
% a1=a1_star*r1;
% k=k_star*rk;
%
% % we have to put a limitation on the coz to avoid division by 0:
% if cosz<cosmin, % low sun or sun behind surface
% limit_it=0;
% else % normal case with a direct component
% limit_it=1;
% end
%
% tau_b=(a0+a1*exp(-k/cosz))*limit_it;
%
% %radiation received over the atmosphere in space G_on an horizontal surface
% G_on=1367*(1+0.033*cos(2*pi*day/365));
%
% %G_cnb=G_on*tau_b;
% %The horizontal received is
% G_cb=G_on*tau_b*cosz;
%
%
% %The radiation on the sloped surface is not computed yet with this method
r(7)=incidence_angle;
r(8)=azimut_angle;
r(9)=zenith_angle;
%r(10)=gamma_s2;
Appendix D. Irradiance MATLABr Function of Moix Pierre-Olivier 62
Appendix E
MATLABr Simulinkr
Simulation Structure
63
Appendix E. MATLABr Simulinkr Simulation Structure 64
Appendix F
65
Appendix F. Detail View of Power Supply System Assembly 66
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