Development of a Solar-Powered Vehicle Ece Department Fall 2014
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DEVELOPMENT OF A SOLAR-POWERED VEHICLE ECE DEPARTMENT FALL 2014 EE 309S 16595 EE 362S 17185 ASE 379L 13850 ME 379M 18960 Instructor: Professor Gary A. Hallock UTA 7.354 471-4965 [email protected] Office hours prior to lab at PRC or by appointment Time and Place: 1) Tu 5 – 6:30 PM BUR 220 2) Th 5:00 – 9:30 PM PRC CW1 (also known as Bldg. 120) – project work BUR 220 / possibly other main campus location – project reports during the last week of the semester Approved Technical Elective: • Power (EE 362S) • Electronics (EE 362S) • Robotics/Controls (EE 362S, 362K prerequisite) • Academic Enrichment (EE 362S) • Career Gateway Elective (ME 379M) • Approved Technical Elective (ASE 379L) • Other areas with permission of your advisor Textbook: The Winning Solar Car – A Design Guide for Solar Race Car Teams Douglas R. Carroll, SAE International, 2003, ISBN 0-7680-1131-0 (Optional) Websites: • http://www.utsvt.com/ (UT solar car main website) • http://www.americansolarchallenge.org/ (ASC website) 2 • Synology server (document sharing / storage) • UTSVT Listserv (will add anyone interested beyond class) Course Grade: • Project: 50 % (effort and accomplishment about equal) • Oral presentation: 10 % • Written report: 10 % • Notebook: 15 % • Attendance: 15 % • Group project peer assessment welcome This is a projects course, and your project determines most of your grade. You must keep an engineering notebook, where dated entries indicate your progress through the semester. You will give an oral presentation close to the end of the semester, and turn in a written report (5-10 pages) on your work. Your oral and written reports should emphasize what you personally accomplished during the semester. This is a 3 credit hour course, and the general “rule of thumb” is 3 hours of outside work per course credit hour. Since this course will have no assigned homework and no exams, you should plan approximately 9 hours per week of work on your project and the solar car effort. This is to be documented in your engineering notebook, as described later. The “effort” component of your project grade will be determined by the amount of time you spend on your project: > 3 hours a week average documented effort = “C” > 5.5 hours a week average documented effort = “B” > 8 hours a week average documented effort = “A” Documented means described in your engineering notebook. The “accomplishment” part of your grade is successful completion of your project. Does it work, is it finished, does it meet specifications, etc. Your project effort does not include our Tuesday class (class time is included in the attendance part of your grade). It DOES include your project work on Thursdays and of course all other times you work on your project. Be careful not lose your engineering notebook!!!!! Our 3 - 4 hours of scheduled lab work on Thursday evening is obviously insufficient for a high grade. It is expected that groups will find additional times to meet during the week and/or 3 weekends, as well as work individually on their project. You will need to be flexible, which is part of working as a group. OVERVIEW The objective of this course is the development of unique, high tech solar cars for the American Solar Challenge (ASC) and the Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP). Our latest car is called TexSun. It represents about a 4 year effort, and was completed just in time for FSGP 2013. Improvements to TexSun and modifications required for ASC 2014 dominated our work over the past year. FSGP is a track race and has been held in Austin at the Circuit of the Americas Formula 1 track the past 2 years. We also raced TexSun in the cross-country ASC race this past July. Our previous solar car is called the Samsung Solorean. We raced this car in 2010, in both the 2010 Formula Sun Grand Prix and the 2010 American Solar Challenge (as well as the 2009 FSGP). We no longer race this car. We use Solorean for outreach events and fund raising. It is also a platform that can be used for trying out new ideas and systems. The solar car team has recently decided to begin the design of a new solar car. Typically this has been a 2 year effort for us, but many team members would like to have our new car completed and race in the 2015 Formula Sun Grand Prix (next June or July). In addition to work on TexSun and Solorean, the opportunity exists for you to be a part of the group designing our new car. TexSun followed Solorean and Solar Steer. We have a few team members and alumni that were involved with all or most of these vehicles. We have a number of team members extremely dedicated to this work. TexSun is a competitive solar car. This is an exciting time for the UT solar car team, as we have an extensive history and our next car can be even more competitive. We have lots to do. If you become interested in this work beyond this semester you can stay with the solar car team and help race our new car (or TexSun) next summer. This course is unique in many ways. It is interdisciplinary, with students from ECE, ME, ASE, and other engineering and non-engineering departments. This is how real engineering gets done. You are encouraged to be involved with work outside of your major. This is both interesting and good preparation for your engineering career. We also have a mix of students from freshman through seniors, with a wide range of abilities. What you get out of this course is primarily determined by the time and effort you put into it. In addition, freshman (for example) are not expected to undertake projects as sophisticated as seniors can undertake. We have a wide range of projects available. Our course is coupled with the solar car student organization (UTSVT). Experienced team members will lead or provide guidance on projects. You should keep in mind that these team 4 members are volunteers, unlike the TAs in more traditional courses. It is your responsibility to be putting effort into this course. If you are having trouble making progress on your project see Prof. Hallock. This puts a lot of responsibility on you. FORMAT The format of the course includes lectures, group discussion, student presentations, and laboratory work. As part of this work, each student will develop an overall understanding of the theory, design, operation, and construction of a solar electric vehicle. Although we will focus on a solar car, much of what we discuss is relevant to electric and electric/hybrid vehicles (battery systems, for example) and terrestrial solar power (solar arrays and power trackers, for example). These should be an important part of your future, and many of you here have strong interest in these topics. In addition, you will develop in-depth knowledge in a particular focused area. The solar car is an interdisciplinary project, involving electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineering, as well as business, strategy, and other skills. A number of topics will be covered in the course lectures. We will begin with an introduction to our solar cars. We will discuss solar car raycing and the American Solar Challenge and Formula Sun Grand Prix. We will discuss raycing history, and UT raycing. Next we will discuss the overall modeling of a solar car. This will include topics such as aerodynamics, rolling resistance and losses, and the main electrical system (array, battery, and motor). We will then look at several systems in detail. We will investigate car aerodynamics, including body shape effects, Reynolds number, drag calculations, and air flow. We will look at chassis design, covering topics such as the suspension, drive train, and steering. We will study solar array design, covering solar cell fundamentals, efficiency, temperature effects, coatings, and shading. We will discuss electric motors, and their suitability for electric vehicles. We will look at battery technologies, including lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, nickel- metal-hydride, lithium-ion, lithium-polymer, and lithium iron phosphate. This will include battery modeling, charge-discharge characteristics, and basic chemistry. CLASS Our class on Tuesdays will be a lecture. I will discuss topics as previously described. Please come to this class to hear my lecture. Do not do homework, surf the web, e-mail, etc. Otherwise you will not receive attendance credit in your grade. I will try to keep this material interesting. 5 Our class on Thursday will generally be combined with the lab. Space on the main campus is very limited, and we do not have a place to either store or work on our solar car (the new EERC building will have this capability). Our solar car work is done at UT’s research campus, the Pickle Research Center (PRC). It is located in north Austin, and travel time is involved. With the assumption that you may have another class or other responsibilities up to our 5 pm Thursday class, you may use part of our class time to travel to PRC. I expect that we should all be able to be at Pickle by about 5:45 pm on Thursdays. For the final 2 weeks or so of class we will do our entire Thursday time on the main campus, for final report oral presentations. I will set up a room if BUR 220 is not available past 6:30 pm. Today there is no lab – do not go out to Pickle or ETC 2.102! Next week for our Thursday class (5:45 – 9:30 PM) we will meet at the solar car, Pickle Research Center CW1.