Over the week-long break, we made several leaps in progress on our way to a working solar car. Since we have not competed in this competition before, it is paramount that we iterate our design as much as possible in order to artificially boost our team’s experience. Over the course of the winter break, several […]
Our new chassis design has taken a major shift in its compatibility with other parts and its aerodynamics. We have changed our chassis to be thinner to accommodate the change in the width of a human sitting down. At the bottom of the chassis, the inner width is 22 inches and its upper width is […]
It can hardly be argued that some of the most important parts of a car are the wheels, it wouldn’t be much of a car without them. However, in order to comply with the rules of the Solar Car Competition (and protect the rear of the poor soul who has to drive the car), we […]
The aerodynamics of our solar car are full steam ahead. A smooth body will ensure that the power from our motors is spent moving the car instead of opposing the drag. Essential elements of our aerodynamic body: Fairings around wheels Smooth airfoil shaped body surrounding chassis Aerodynamic solar panel frame and struts We connected with […]
While having a working and efficient car is important, it’s all for naught if our car doesn’t comply with the Solar Car Challenge’s safety standards. It’s imperative that our car is safe for the driver and those around the car and so, acquiring our required 5-point harness and a good seat for our driver was […]
One of the most fundamental decisions guiding the construction of the car is the choice of materials. The strength and weight of materials used decides the size and type of stock used to create components, as well as dictates in part what manufacturing techniques we can use. This dependency also works in inverse, for example […]
For the braking system, we are using brake discs and calipers from bike brakes, including cable activation via lever. When thinking of brake design and the uniquely shaped chassis, we decided we should use the simplest braking method for a prototype. The Solar Car Challenge requires a dual braking system, with separate pedals activating each […]
Just recently, we have shifted our Three-Dimensional Modeling software from Autodesk Inventor to Dassault Systems’ SOLIDWORKS. Between the program’s there have been many advantages in using SOLIDWORKS over Inventor, namely the real world application and use of the program allows us to make more critical design decisions without having to build anything. The featured image […]
UNDERSTANDING AND PROTOTYPING For our initial steering design, we decided to use a rack and pinion connected to a U-joint, which would connect to the steering wheel. To come up with the design, students visited a golf-cart services shop where they looked at the steering components on golf carts to get a better understanding of […]
One of the first design priorities was creating a fundamental chassis as a foundation for the rest of our car. This decision would guide the rest of the design process. Therefore, we began with the basics. We started by reviewing past designs to generate several ideas for the basic car geometry. From this preliminary brainstorming, we reached […]
