SEMINAR REPORT ON " HYDROGEN WIRE CAR " VTU 8th MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COLLEGE, BIDAR Microsoft Word

1. VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
BELGAVI-590014
A
Seminar Report
On
“HYDROGEN WIRE CAR”
A Seminar report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the
award of the Degree of
Bachelor of engineering
In
Mechanical engineering
Submitted by:
SHUBHAM KUMAR
3LA14ME073
Under the guidance of
PROF. VIJAYANAND B KAPTE
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Lingaraj Appa Engineering College
Gornalli, Bidar-585403

2. Lingaraj Appa Engineering College
Gornalli, Bidar 585403
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the seminar work entitled “HYDROGEN WIRE CAR”
has been successfully carried out by SHUBHAM KUMAR (3LA14ME073),
student of Lingaraj Appa Engineering College in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of degree in Bachelor of engineering in
mechanical engineering of VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL
UNIVERSITY, BELGAVI during academic year 2018-2019. The seminar
report has been approved as it satisfies the academic requirement in respect of
seminar work for the said degree.
Prof. Vijayanand B Kapte Prof. Vijayanand B Kapte Dr. Sanjeev Reddy K
SEMINAR GUIDE HOD PRINCIPLE

3. DECLARATION
I USN:3LA14ME073, studying B.E. Mechanical Engineering in Lingaraj
Appa Engineering College, Bidar-585401 hereby declare that the seminar
entitled “HYDROGEN WIRE CAR “ is an authentic work of my own carried
under the supervision of PROF. “Vijayanand B Kapte“ Department of
Mechanical Engineering, LAEC, BIDAR. I have not submitted the matter
embodied to any other university or institution for the award of any degree.
DATE: USN: 3LA14ME073
PLACE: BIDAR

4. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The satisfaction that I feel at the successful completion of my seminar would be
incomplete if I did not mention the people, whose able guidance and
engagement, crowned my efforts with success. It is my privilege to express my
gratitude and respect to all those who inspired and helped me in the completion
of my seminar. All the expertise in the seminar belongs to those listed below.
I express my sincere thanks to our President Poojya Dr.Sharanbaswappa
Appaji and secretary Shri. Basavaraj Deshmukh for providing all the
required facilities for the completion of the seminar.
I express my sincere thanks to our beloved principal Dr.SanjeevReddy K
Hudgikar, LAEC, Bidar for giving me art opportunity to carry out my
academic seminar. I am greatly indebted to Prof. Vijayanand B Kapte HOD,
of Mechanical Engineering Department, LAEC, BIDAR for facilities and
support extended to me. It expresses my gratitude and thanks to my guide and
seminar coordinator Prof. Sampath Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering LAEC, Bidar for giving his valuable
coordinator and excellences guidance in completion the seminar.
I express my sincere thanks to all the teaching & non-teaching staff of
mechanical engineering and our friend for their valuable co-operation during
the development of my seminar.
Finally, I convey my sweet thanks to my beloved parents who supported me to
purpose higher studies and providing me a pleasant environment at home to
complete the seminar in time.
SHUBHAM KUMAR USN: 3LA14ME073

5. CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION 1
2. HY-WIRE BASICS 3
3. POWER 6
4. CONTROL 11
5. HY-WIRE CAR SPECIFICATION 18
6. CONCLUSION 19
7. REFERENCES 20

6. Chapter I
INTRODUCTION
Cars are immensely complicated machines, but when you get down
to it, they do an incredibly simple job. Most of the complex stuff in a car is
dedicated to turning wheels, which grip the road to pull the car body and
passengers along. The steering system tilts the wheels side to side to turn the
car, and brake and acceleration systems control the speed of the wheels.
Given that the overall function of a car is so basic (it just needs to
provide rotary motion to wheels), it seems a little strange that almost all cars
have the same collection of complex devices crammed under the hood and the
same general mass of mechanical and hydraulic linkages running throughout.
Why do cars necessarily need a steering column, brake and acceleration pedals,
a combustion engine, a catalytic converter and the rest of it?
According to many leading automotive engineers, they don't; and
more to the point, in the near future, they won't. Most likely, a lot of us will be
driving radically different cars within 20 years. And the difference won't just
be under the hood -- owning and driving cars will change significantly, too.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 1

7. In this article, we'll look at one interesting vision of the future,
General Motor's remarkable concept car, the Hy-wire. GM may never actually
sell the Hy-wire to the public, but it is certainly a good illustration of various
ways cars might evolve in the near future.
GM's sedan model Hy-wire
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 2

8. Chapter- II
HY-WIRE BASICS
Two basic elements largely dictate car design today: the internal
combustion engine and mechanical and hydraulic linkages. If you've ever
looked under the hood of a car, you know an internal combustion engine
requires a lot of additional equipment to function correctly. No matter what
else they do with a car, designers always have to make room for this
equipment.
The same goes for mechanical and hydraulic linkages. The basic idea
of this system is that the driver maneuvers the various actuators in the car (the
wheels, brakes, etc.) more or less directly, by manipulating driving controls
connected to those actuators by shafts, gears and hydraulics. In a rack-and-
pinion steering system, for example, turning the steering wheel rotates a shaft
connected to a pinion gear, which moves a rack gear connected to the car's
front wheels. In addition to restricting how the car is built, the linkage concept
also dictates how we drive: The steering wheel, pedal and gear-shift system
were all designed around the linkage idea.
The defining characteristic of the Hy-wire (and its conceptual
predecessor, the Autonomy) is that it doesn't have either of these two things.
Instead of an engine, it has a fuel cell stack, which powers an electric motor
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 3

9. connected to the wheels. Instead of mechanical and hydraulic linkages, it has a
drive by wire system -- a computer actually operates the components that move
the wheels, activate the brakes and so on, and based on input from an
electronic controller. This is the same control system employed in modern
fighter jets as well as many commercial planes.
The result of these two substitutions is a very different type of car --
and a very different driving experience. There is no steering wheel, there are
no pedals and there is no engine compartment. In fact, every piece of
equipment that actually moves the car along the road is housed in an 11-inch-
thick (28 cm) aluminum chassis -- also known as the skateboard -- at the base
of the car. Everything above the chassis is dedicated solely to driver control
and passenger comfort.
This means the driver and passengers don't have to sit behind a mass
of machinery. Instead, the Hy-wire has a huge front windshield, which gives
everybody a clear view of the road. The floor of the fiberglass-and-steel
passenger compartment can be totally flat, and it's easy to give every seat lots
of leg room. Concentrating the bulk of the vehicle in the bottom section of the
car also improves safety because it makes the car much less likely to tip over.
But the coolest thing about this design is that it lets you remove the
entire passenger compartment and replace it with a different one. If you want
to switch from a van to a sports car, you don't need an entirely new car; you
just need a new body (which is a lot cheaper).
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 4

10. The Hy-wire has wheels, seats and windows like a conventional car, but the
similarity pretty much ends there. There is no engine under the hood and no
steering wheel or pedals inside.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 5

11. Chapter III
POWER
The "Hy" in Hy-wire stands for hydrogen, the standard fuel for a fuel
cell system. Like batteries, fuel cells have a negatively charged terminal and a
positively charged terminal that propel electrical charge through a circuit
connected to each end. They are also similar to batteries in that they generate
electricity from a chemical reaction. But unlike a battery, you can continually
recharge a fuel cell by adding chemical fuel -- in this case, hydrogen from an
onboard storage tank and oxygen from the atmosphere.
The basic idea is to use a catalyst to split a hydrogen molecule (H2)
into two H protons (H+, positively charged single hydrogen atoms) and two
electrons (e-). Oxygen on the cathode (positively charged) side of the fuel cell
draws H+ ions from the anode side through a proton exchange membrane, but
blocks the flow of electrons. The electrons (which have a negative charge) are
attracted to the protons (which have a positive charge) on the other side of the
membrane, but they have to move through the electrical circuit to get there.
The moving electrons make up the electrical current that powers the various
loads in the circuit, such as motors and the computer system. On the cathode
side of the cell, the hydrogen, oxygen and free electrons combine to form water
(H2O), the system's only emission product.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 6

12. In a hydrogen fuel cell, a catalyst breaks hydrogen molecules in the
anode into protons and electrons. The protons move through the exchange
membrane, toward the oxygen on the cathode side, and the electrons make
their way through a wire between the anode and cathode. On the cathode side,
the hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water. Many cells are connected in
series to move substantial charge through a circuit.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 7

13. In a hydrogen fuel cell, a catalyst breaks hydrogen molecules in the
anode into protons and electrons. The protons move through the exchange
membrane, toward the oxygen on the cathode side, and the electrons make
their way through a wire between the anode and cathode. On the cathode side,
the hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water. Many cells are connected in
series to move substantial charge through a circuit.
One fuel cell only puts out a little bit of power, so you need to combine
many cells into a stack to get much use out of the process. The fuel-cell stack
in the Hy-wire is made up of 200 individual cells connected in series, which
collectively provide 94 kilowatts of continuous power and 129 kilowatts at
peak power. The compact cell stack (it's about the size of a PC tower) is kept
cool by a conventional radiator system that's powered by the fuel cells
themselves.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 8

14. The hydrogen tanks and fuel-cell stack in the Hy-wire
This system delivers DC voltage ranging from 125 to 200 volts,
depending on the load in the circuit. The motor controller boosts this up to 250
to 380 volts and converts it to AC current to drive the three-phase electric
motor that rotates the wheels (this is similar to the system used in conventional
electric cars).
The electric motor's job is to apply torque to the front wheel axle to
spin the two front wheels. The control unit varies the speed of the car by
increasing or decreasing the power applied to the motor. When the controller
applies maximum power from the fuel-cell stack, the motor's rotor spins at
12,000 revolutions per minute, delivering a torque of 159 pound-feet. A single-
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 9

15. stage planetary gear, with a ratio of 8.67:1, steps up the torque to apply a
maximum of 1,375 pound-feet to each wheel. That's enough torque to move the
4,200-pound (1,905-kg) car 100 miles per hour (161 mph) on a level road.
Smaller electric motors maneuver the wheels to steer the car, and electrically
controlled brake calipers bring the car to a stop.
The gaseous hydrogen fuel needed to power this system is stored in
three cylindrical tanks, weighing about 165 pounds (75 kilograms) total. The
tanks are made of a special carbon composite material with the high structural
strength needed to contain high-pressure hydrogen gas. The tanks in the current
model hold about 4.5 pounds (2 kg) of hydrogen at about 5,000 pounds per
square inch (350 bars). In future models, the Hy-wire engineers hope to
increase the pressure threshold to 10,000 pounds per square inch (700 bars),
which would boost the car's fuel capacity to extend the driving range.
Ultimately, GM hopes to get the fuel-cell stack, motors and
hydrogen-storage tanks small enough that they can reduce the chassis thickness
from 11 inches to 6 inches (15 cm). This more compact "skateboard" would
allow for even more flexibility in the body design.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 10

16. Chapter IV
CONTROL
The Hy-wire's "brain" is a central computer housed in the middle of
the chassis. It sends electronic signals to the motor control unit to vary the
speed, the steering mechanism to maneuver the car, and the braking system to
slow the car down.
At the chassis level, the computer controls all aspects of driving and
power use. But it takes its orders from a higher power -- namely, the driver in
the car body. The computer connects to the body's electronics through a single
universal docking port. This central port works the same basic way as a USB
port on a personal computer: It transmits a constant stream of electronic
command signals from the car controller to the central computer, as well as
feedback signals from the computer to the controller. Additionally, it provides
the electric power needed to operate all of the body's onboard electronics. Ten
physical linkages lock the body to the chassis structure.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 11

17. DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 12

18. DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 13

19. GM's diagram of the Autonomy design
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 14

20. The driver's control unit, dubbed the X-drive, is a lot closer to a video
game controller than a conventional steering wheel and pedal arrangement.
The controller has two ergonomic grips, positioned to the left and right of a
small LCD monitor. To steer the car, you glide the grips up and down lightly --
you don't have to keep rotating a wheel to turn, you just have to hold the grip
in the turning position. To accelerate, you turn either grip, in the same way you
would turn the throttle on a motorcycle; and to brake, you squeeze either grip.
Electronic motion sensors, similar to the ones in high-end computer
joysticks, translate this motion into a digital signal the central computer can
recognize. Buttons on the controller let you switch easily from neutral to drive
to reverse, and a starter button turns the car on. Since absolutely everything is
hand-controlled, you can do whatever you want with your feet (imagine
sticking them in a massager during the drive to and from work every day).
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 15

21. The Hy-wire's X-drive
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 16

22. The X-drive can slide to either side of the vehicle.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 17

23. The 5.8-inch (14.7-cm) color monitor in the center of the controller
displays all the stuff you'd normally find on the dashboard (speed, mileage,
fuel level). It also gives you rear-view images from video cameras on the sides
and back of the car, in place of conventional mirrors. A second monitor, on a
console beside the driver, shows you stereo, climate control and navigation
information.
Since it doesn't directly drive any part of the car, the X-drive could
really go anywhere in the passenger compartment. In the current Hy-wire
sedan model, the X-drive swings around to either of the front two seats, so you
can switch drivers without even getting up. It's also easy to adjust the X-drive
up or down to improve driver comfort, or to move it out of the way completely
when you're not driving.
One of the coolest things about the drive-by-wire system is that you
can fine-tune vehicle handling without changing anything in the car's
mechanical components -- all it takes to adjust the steering, accelerator or
brake sensitivity is some new computer software. In future drive-by-wire
vehicles, you will most likely be able to configure the controls exactly to your
liking by pressing a few buttons, just like you might adjust the seat position in
a car today. It would also be possible in this sort of system to store distinct
control preferences for each driver in the family.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 18

24. DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 19

25. .
GM concept of the Autonomy with and without a body attached
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 20

26. The big concern with drive-by-wire vehicles is safety. Since there is
no physical connection between the driver and the car's mechanical elements,
an electrical failure would mean total loss of control. In order to make this sort
of system viable in the real world, drive-by-wire cars will need back-up power
supplies and redundant electronic linkages. With adequate safety measures like
this, there's no reason why drive-by-wire cars would be any more dangerous
than conventional cars. In fact, a lot of designers think they'll be much safer,
because the central computer will be able to monitor driver input. Another
problem is adding adequate crash protection to the car.
The other major hurdle for this type of car is figuring out energy-
efficient methods for producing, transporting and storing hydrogen for the
onboard fuel-cell stacks. With the current state of technology, actually
producing the hydrogen fuel can generate about as much pollution as using
gasoline engines, and storage and distribution systems still have a long way to
go (see How the Hydrogen Economy Works for more information).
So will we ever get the chance to buy a Hy-wire? General Motors
says it fully intends to release a production version of the car in 2010,
assuming it can resolve the major fuel and safety issues. But even if the Hy-
wire team doesn't meet this goal, GM and other automakers are definitely
planning to move beyond the conventional car sometime soon, toward a
computerized, environmentally friendly alternative. In all likelihood, life on the
highway will see some major changes within the next few decades.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 21

27. Chapter -V
HY-WIRE CAR SPECIFICATION
• Top speed: 100 miles per hour (161 mph)
• Weight: 4,185 pounds (1,898 kg)
• Chassis length: 14 feet, 3 inches (4.3 meters)
• Chassis width: 5 feet, 5.7 inches (1.67 meters)
• Chassis thickness: 11 inches (28 cm)
• Wheels: eight-spoke, light alloy wheels.
• Tires: 20-inch (51-cm) in front and 22-inch (56-cm) in back
• Fuel-cell power: 94 kilowatts continuous, 129 kilowatts peak
• Fuel-cell-stack voltage: 125 to 200 volts
• Motor: 250- to 380-volt three-phase asynchronous electric motor
• Crash protection: front and rear "crush zones" (or "crash boxes") to
absorb impact energy
• Related GM patents in progress: 30
• GM team members involved in design: 500+
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 22

28. CONCLUSION
By using Hy-Wire technology certain multi national companies like
General Motors is fully intended to release a production version of the car in
2010, assuming it can resolve the major fuel and safety issues. The life on the
high way will see some major changes within the next few decades.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 23

29. REFERENCES
• www.howstuffworks.com
• www.generalmoters.com
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 24

30. ABSTRACT
Hy-Wire Car is without mechanical and hydraulic linkage end engine.
Instead of these it contain a fuel cell stack and a drive by wire system. It is
fully automated car it is a future car. In future it will have a wide application.
The problem with fuel consumption and pollution can be minimize to certain
level.
DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 25

31. DEPT. OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Page | 26