VEGA - Towards a new era with super speed

Crude oil reserves are rapidly diminishing. Therefore the prices of the petroleum are rising. Further the burning of petroleum oil causes deadly effects towards the environment with millions of vehicles in the world. That number is enough to have a clear image about the amount of the petroleum burnt per second in the world. These clues give us the evidence to switch our energy sources currently used in vehicles to a clean energy source.

Timely necessity of an Electrical vehicle………

Electricity can be generated with less or no effect to the environment. There are plenty of non-conventional renewable methods to generate the electricity. Therefore it is foreseen that there will be an optimistic future for electricity generation which can be matched with demand using more environment friendly methods which are to be revealed. This will be a good sign to change the energy source of the vehicles from petroleum oil to the electricity. At the present it is being brought into action all over the world in different scales. In the Sri Lankan context, "Codegen International" has taken up the responsibility of producing the 1st super car driven by the electricity. They hope to identify possible technological barriers for making the electrical car a reality which will be a major advancement of technology in Sri Lanka.

Minds behind Innovation

Dr.Harsha Subainghe, CEO of Codegen has invested for the research and development of the project of producing a super car named “VEGA” with the collaboration of group experts of different fields in initiating this project. Dr. Beshan Kulapala who has specialized in Electrical Engineering from Arizona and possessing 13 years of career experience at Intel is leading this project. Thilak Dissanayake; an Engineering Consultant specialized in Aerodynamics with long term experience at Boeing, Pabassara Karunanayake; Project Manager at Codegen, Sasiranga De silva an Engineering Consultant and a Lecturer of University of Moratuwa   are some of the experts involved in the project VEGA.. The design of the VEGA super car was a result of the innovative outlook of Dashantha Gunarathne. Varuna Ruwan Maduranga, Ruwan Seneratne, Rashiga Walallawita, Shiranga Ariyasinghe, Supun Amarasinghe, Senal Devasurendra and Dilshan Prageeth Siriwardhana are among the eight full time staff. The three Army personnel Chinthaka Srinath Wijesekara, Buddhika Jayaranga and Nihal Kumara Thebuwana also contribute to this project.

Design Features……..

This super car is designed such that it has an acceleration of 0-100km/h in less than four seconds and the top speed being 220km/h with the capacity of 300 km with one charge. In order to meet the required specifications; all the components are designed and manufactured in Sri Lanka except the two motors and the battery cells.

Two permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) with nominal torque of 210 Nm at 4400 rpm are used for traction in VEGA. PMSMs, a hybrid of brushless DC motors and induction motors, are widely used for traction purpose in hybrid vehicles because of their high power density. Unlike traditional vehicles, the gear mechanism in VEGA consists of fixed ratio gear sets. Speed and torque is controlled by changing the power input to the motors. Motion of the car is manipulated by controlling torque since it is more relevant to the dynamics of the vehicle. VEGA will have a capability of accelerating to 60 miles/h from still within less than 4 seconds. Advance power electronics technologies are highly utilized for motor controlling and charging mechanisms.

VEGA is equipped with an electronic differential braking system for steering purposes. Two rear wheels can be controlled separately using this braking mechanism. VEGA contains over 25 processors connected through a Controller Area Network (CAN) for its computing tasks. There is no doubt that complex software is essential for real time signal processing of an electric super car. Engineers of VEGA project exhibit their technical capabilities by developing their own software required for computations.

Design of Battery system

Battery is the most important component that comes into consideration when designing an electric vehicle. Engineers of VEGA project use the most advanced battery technology in the world to make VEGA a reality. Currently one of the most efficient battery technologies, Lithium Ferro Phosphate is used as the battery cells. Each battery cell supplies 3.3V and it is proposed that there will be 600 battery cells in the car.  Battery heats up to around 600C while operating therefore an efficient cooling mechanism is essential especially for a super car. Water and Ethyl Glycol mixture will be utilized as the coolant of batteries. An intelligent battery charging mechanism is used for charging these batteries to the exact same amount every time it is being charged to avoid any excess burden on few battery cells. Condition of each and every individual battery cell is important for an efficient performance of battery system. VEGA is equipped with a battery management system to increase its efficiency further. Three levels are available for the charging mechanism of VEGA.  In the first 2 levels, battery is fully charged within 3 to 6 hours after connecting to 230V AC supply. It has 300 km mileage after fully charged. Third level, supercharging has been designed for emergency charging purposes. Battery is charged to 80% of total capacity within 20 minutes.

Body of the car is designed with carbon fiber, light weight, high strength material which is used in sport car manufacturing in most of the developed countries. The mould of the body has being built with a foam material. First the plug of the car will be built and then will be finished with carbon fiber. Much consideration is given to the mechanical stability of the car. Aerodynamic and other mechanical stabilities were analyzed using computer simulations.

The design work of the car will be completed by December reflecting the world that Sri Lankans are capable in producing advance technological product. In the future Sri Lanka might prove to be the leading electrical vehicle Manufacturer in the world with a super electric car coming under a purely Sri Lankan brand. This will contribute towards maintaining an environment friendly transportation system and further to maintain uniform load curve throughout the day since vehicle owners can be encourage charge their batteries during the off peak enhancing the electricity consumption which will result in a healthy load curve.

Team VEGA

Article By:Lahiru Sasintha
                Indoopa Manamperi

Posted in: Electrical Industry