Experimental study on the effect of alternator speed to the car charging system

Abstract

In this paper, we present our work, which is doing an energy audit on alternator’s current output and battery’s voltage based on alternator speed. Up until today, the demand for power in automobile is ever increasing. As technology advances, more and more electrical devices were produced and being installed in vehicles. To cope with the demand, alternator has been designed and modified so that it can produce enough power. This research is to study the effect of alternator speed to the charging system. The car used in this experiment is Proton Preve 1.6 Manual. In both ISO 8854 and SAE J 56, alternator testing and labelling standards indicate that the rated output an alternator is the amount of current that it is capable of producing at 6,000 RPM. Three different constant speed of engine which is 750 RPM as idle speed, 1500 RPM and 3000 RPM as cruise speed were taken as parameter. The speed of the alternator was measured using tachometer, digital multi-meter was used to measure battery’s voltage, and AC/DC Clamp was used to measure alternator current output. The result shows that the faster the alternator spin, the more power it can produce. And when there is more power, the faster the charging rate of the battery.