Arid Zone Journal of Engineering, Technology and Environment, March, 2018; Vol.

14(1):93-103
Copyright © Faculty of Engineering, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Print ISSN: 1596-2490, Electronic ISSN: 2545-5818, www.azojete.com.ng

LOW POWER ELECTROMECHANICAL DEVICE FOR VENTILATION IN RURAL

HOMES

S. T. Yusuf1*, M. S. Julius1, M. Abdulkadir2 and A. M. Yatim3

1
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Taraba State University, Jalingo, Nigeria
2
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Nigeria
3
Department of Energy Conversion, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
*Corresponding author’s e-mail address: theophylussimon@gmail.com

Abstract
The global rise of energy consumption has highlighted the needs to develop systems with energy saving capability.
This paper describes the development of a low power electromechanical system for indoor ventilation. The proposed
system consists of electromechanical system (actuator), motion translator, position controller, spring and inductive
proximity sensor. Experimental test of the prototype was carried out to compare with the simulation results. The
developed prototype was tested on a commonly sized blade normally used for ventilation. The system produces a
rotational speed of 550 rpm at 4.4 W of power, which should be sufficient for indoor ventilation and cooling of
simple homes and buildings.

Keywords: Permanent magnet, Electromagnet, Ventilation.

1. Introduction
Actuators/motors are custom design based on their application. In order to achieve good
performance and low power consumption, the characteristics and the limitations of the actuator
should be known in the controller design process. In many tropical countries, most of the rural
communities are not connected to the grid. Therefore, low power device will be suitable by
utilizing a limited power resource of energy over an extended period of time. Also, increase in
the amount of carbon dioxide and decrease in the oxygen content of the air have caused
discomfort, headache, and lethargy. There is now evidence as in Kreichelt et al. (1996) the
deleterious effects may also result largely from interference with the heat-regulating mechanism
of the body. A proposed design by Won-Jong and Ali (2010) has demonstrated that power
consumption can be reduced by using local excitation approach; power consumed by the motor is
95W. Energy saving has become an area of interest for researchers (Paolo, 2013; Isermann,
2005; Janocha, 2010) Linear electromagnetic actuators (Eyabi and Washington, 2006; Ryan et
al. 2005) produce a space range of stroke. Due to the terminal low voltage which is usually from
Pulse width modulation, the current is built in the winding. Actuator controlled technology by
(Dupraz et al., 2006; Shaohua, 2008) has become an increasingly useful method to decrease the
high input current consumption, by opening or closing the circuit at the optimal phase of current
or voltage. (Duggirala and Lal, 2005) Design a system with fifty percent duty cycle. Other
application of motors for low duty cycle operation is on clamping system.

In this paper, low power consumption can better be achieved by using position control approach.
A battery source voltage shown in Figure 1 is utilized to supply power to the system.

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1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818; www.azojete.com.ng

Figure 1: System circuit diagram

The equation of the electrical circuit shown in Figure 1 is described by Kirchhoff’s voltage law:

where

Consequently, by re-arranging equation (3), it gives:

where: x, L, R, I, and V are the linear displacement of the moving coil, inductance of the
electromagnet coil, resistance of the electromagnet coil, electromagnet current, and supply
voltage respectively. Using second Newton’s law, the balance equation of forces acting on the
actuator is as follows:

By re-arranging equation (5),

Therefore,
[ ]
where: , , and are the mass of the movable coil, coefficient of the spring rigidity, linear
displacement of the coil and force of the electromagnet respectively. Equations (4), (5) and (7)
were used to model the system in Matlab/Simulink as shown in Figure 2.

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Yusuf et al.: low power electromechanical device for ventilation in rural homes. AZOJETE 14(1):93-103.
ISSN 1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818, www.azojete.com.ng

1
s
Power
Source
f(u) 1/L
-K-
I
V R

f(u) L
f(u)

i*dL/dx*dx/dt

Fe
f(u)

((i^2/2)*dL/dt
a

1 1 x
-K-
s s
1/M

-K-

-K- B

K
k

Figure 2: Simulation model of electromechanical system

1.1 Working principle
When the electromechanical device is switched ON (voltage is applied), the current flow through
the coil winding and generate an electromagnetic force of attraction with the permanent magnet,
and the coil moves in a positive direction of coordinate. The movement of the actuator coil is
converted using the motion translator. As the metal portion of the position controller pass, the
sensor switch OFF (voltage not applied), and the spring pulls back the moving coil to its original
position. During this process, repulsive force between the oscillating magnet and the magnet
array of the motion translator occurs consecutively and produce rotational motion. This operation
resume in a close loop. Empirical design coefficients by (Sung, and Lee, 2005) were used to
analyze power consumption of the device. Figure 3 shows the detail sectional view.
Spring

h
Core

gc di do
Magnet Magnet
Ch
Am

Moving coil Sm Ga

Figure 3: Sectional diagram of electromechanical system

From Figure 3, is magnetic field strength, is the set air gap, is region of magnet and
is the coefficient of magnetic motive force. The coil interior diameter , external diameter
and coil mean length per single turn are expressed in Equation (8), (9) and (10) respectively:

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Arid Zone Journal of Engineering, Technology and Environment, March, 2018; Vol. 14(1):93-103. ISSN
1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818; www.azojete.com.ng

where: is the core thickness, is coil holder thickness and is coil layer thickness as show in
Figure 3.5. The coil resistance and the relation between functional voltage and current is
expressed in Equation (11) and (12) by using relative resistance of copper wire:

[ ]

[ ]

where: is the coil gap, N is the number of turns of the coil and is the diameter of wire, is
diameter of insulated coil, h is coil height and V is the supply voltage. The coil temperature ,
which is produce by coil resistance R and current I is expressed as:

where: P is power consumption, is heat dissipation coefficient, which is the sum of heat energy
radiation from the coil surface. is the amount of inner and outer heat dissipated from surface
region of the coil.

By substituting Equation (11) into (15), the coil temperature can be written as:

( )

where: is the function ratio. Using Equation (17), the coil height h is expressed as:

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Yusuf et al.: low power electromechanical device for ventilation in rural homes. AZOJETE 14(1):93-103.
ISSN 1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818, www.azojete.com.ng

where: is coil shape coefficient. The coil height and coil layer thickness stand for the heat
dissipation and coil shape as shown in Equation (20) and (21).

From Equation (8), (9), (10) and (14), the coil external diameter , coil mean length per single
turn , coil diameter of wire , total number of turns and total coil resistance are
symbolize by function of can be expressed in Equation (22) through (26) respectively:

( )

√ ( )

The available voltage to the coil of resistance , the power consumption due to the process of
coil temperature , is expressed as:

The derivation of equation (27) expresses the operating principle of the actuator. Figure 4 shows
the set-up of the prototype actuator.

Figure 4: Set up of actuator prototype

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1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818; www.azojete.com.ng

2. Conversion of Linear to Rotational Motion by Motion Translator

From Equation (7), the linear acceleration is the rate of change of velocity over time change.
Given as:

The linear velocity , produced by the moving coil of the actuator is the rate of change of
displacement x, Therefore:

The motion translator converts the linear motion to rotational motion. Therefore, the angular
velocity , can be expressed as:

Relating Equation (29) and (30), we write:

where: is the angular motion in radians and is the radius of magnet array rotor. The angular
acceleration , will be:

where: is a constant. By integrating equation (32), we have,

∫ ∫ | |

Equation (33) becomes,

where: and are final and initial angular velocity.

3. Simulation and Experimental Results
Several tests were carried out during simulation of the system to find out the optimum duty cycle
that can justify the characteristic behavior of the system as a low power device. Figure 5, 6 and 7
shows the output response of different duty cycle.

Low power consumption can be improved by using low duty cycle. Figure 6 show a duty cycle
of 33% which is lower compared to that in Figure 5. Reducing the duty cycle, the result shows a
distorted waveform as shown in Figure 7. Therefore, 33% duty cycle is selected as the optimum
for hardware development.

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ISSN 1596-2490; e-ISSN 2545-5818, www.azojete.com.ng

Input voltage is set at 11V. Figure 8 shows the simulation result of the system time response with
voltage. From the simulation result for one complete cycle, the response ON period of the input
voltage is 65ms and the OFF period is 175ms. A current waveform in Figure 9 shows an
intermittent duty cycle which is an effective approach to decrease the rate of power consumption
and exploit the performance of the electromagnet.
15

10
Voltage (V)

0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time (ms)

Figure 5: Duty cycle operation at 39%

15

10
Voltage(V)

0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time (ms)

Figure 6: Duty cycle operation at 33%

15
Voltage (V)

10

0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time (ms)

Figure 7: Duty cycle operation at 30%

15

10
Voltage (V)

0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time (ms)

Figure 8: Simulation result of the input voltage

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1.5

Current (A)
0.5

0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time (ms)

Figure 9: Simulation result of the input current

The ratio between the voltage (11V) and the resistance of the coil (9 ) gives the current of 1.2A.
Figure 10 shows the peak input power of the proposed device. It shows an intermittent waveform
as it rapidly rises to the nominal power of 13.2W and suddenly drop to 0W, While at 0W, the
device continue to operate due to magnetic repulsion that occur in the motion translator.
15

10
Power (W)

0
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
Time (ms)

Figure 10: Peak input power (simulation)

3.1 Results
Figure 11 shows the Photograph of the developed prototype low power device. Figure 12 shows
the concurrent input voltage and current waveform of the system under operation. The average
power consumption using position controller was calculated to be 4.4W.

Figure 11: Photograph of the developed electromechanical device.

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Figure 12: Voltage and current waveform (ch.2: Voltage, ch.3: Current).

3.1.1 Discussions
Experimental results as shown in figure 12 have proven the ability of the system as a low power
motor under load condition use for indoor ventilation, since power use is minimized by using
position control approach. The simulation analysis in figure 10 execute by portend of the model
developed in Matlab/Simulink environment act in accordance with the experimental results in
figure 12. The rate of power consumption is proportional to the switching ON time per cycle of
rotation. Hence, reducing switching time (pulse width) level can be beneficial in saving energy.
Performances of the proposed low power motor have been evaluated by hardware
implementation.
Now that the functionality of the developed Low Power Electromechanical device has been
experimentally validated, a logical next stage is to modify the proposed prototype so as to
achieve better results. Performance of the device (magnetic field interaction of the permanent
magnet array with oscillating magnet) can be improved by using permanent magnet with higher
magnetic field strength.

4. Conclusion
In this paper, a prototype of low power electromechanical ventilation system is proposed. The
proposed method has been found able to minimize the rate of power consumption using position
control approach. Governing equations for the system in this study were based on
electromagnetic theories. The simulation result performed in Matlab/Simulink, complied with the
results of the experiments. The system drew a practical amount of 4.4W to produce linear
motion, which was converted to rotational motion (550 rpm) on load condition for indoor
ventilation. The system can also be used as a hot air blower for dryers.

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