Engineering

Fish Days of Summer

Posted Fri, 05/21/2010 - 6:01pm by twhalm
As the race this summer gets closer, the mechanical engineers on the team have been finding themselves with odd bits of free time here and there. But what is there to do? Infinium is fully built, so there is no need to do any designing. The race regulations have not been released for the Global Green Challenge 2011, which makes designing the next car as hard as cooking without a recipe. As a result, the mechanical engineers have turned to improving our workspace. Our most recent, and brilliant, improvement was the transformation of an old SpectrUM mold into a beautiful wildlife habitat complete with a goldfish pond containing ten of the highest quality goldfish, hand-picked from our local super market. We are currently seeking suitable names for these ten new team members, so feel free to suggest some in the comments below. As a mechanical myself I am glad Infinium is such a reliable car because it not only lets the engineers on the team express their creativity, but it also makes our workspace a better place to spend countless hours.

Australian Mock Race - Day 5: A Sunny Drive to the Finish

Posted Sun, 10/04/2009 - 8:47am by Steven Hechtman

After spending the previous day performing tests at the Royal Flying Doctor Service's emergency landing airstrip, we set out this morning for Adelaide and the finish of our Mock Race. Our starting location was approximately 50 km north of Glendambo, leaving us around 670 km (418 mi) from the finish of timing outside Adelaide. We started at 8:00 AM with sunny skies at last--quite a relief after the weather of previous days.

Although we had only a small amount of energy left from the three cloudy days before, along with a threat of more clouds in the afternoon, we were able to cruise at over 90-95 km/hr (56-59 mph) in the morning. Thanks to the forecasts of our meteorologist, Chris McMeeking, we were able to track the clouds well ahead of Infinium. In the afternoon, when we were sure that we would not run into significant cloud cover, we started to cruise near the speed limit of 110 km/hr (69 mph). After three days of miserable weather, it was encouraging to be able to travel closer to race speeds.

We hit our control points in Glendambo and Port Augusta, and finished at the end of timing outside Adelaide with time to spare before the end of the race day. Best of all, we had perfect reliability on the car, with no time on the side of the road! Each of the divisions on our Race Crew truly deserves praise for their part in today's success: Engineering, for ensuring the car was reliable enough to last through the grueling mock race; Strategy, for tracking such unpredictable weather and managing our batteries through the cloudy days; and Operations, for keeping our whole team going through five long days and four nights in the Outback's ever-changing conditions.

With exactly three weeks until the Global Green Challenge starts, we have readied Infinium and ourselves for the trials of the Outback and will now turn our focus to the final details of our race preparations.

-Steve Hechtman, Race Manager

Testing Continues: On the Road with Infinium

Posted Wed, 07/15/2009 - 3:53pm by jfed

Coming off our 2008 victory, we have learned that every mile driven on Infinium before the race is one less mile we are likely to break down on the race. Reliability is essential to building a championship solar car, as well as allowing for ample time to make minor tweaks that translate into minutes off the clock.

Infinium at Michigan International Speedway
Infinium at Michigan International Speedway

As of now, Infinium has driven for over 1080 miles (1738 kilometers) and 26 hours with an average speed around 40 mph (65 kph). We have tested the car through a variety of different scenarios: low speed endurance, high speed endurance, precision steering and handling, basic vehicle dynamics, cobblestone road, and open road during rush hour. I am happy to say that with the exception of a few very minor glitches, the car is performing exactly as designed. We also pass all mandated vehicle dynamics testing for both the 2009 Global Green Challenge and the 2010 North American Solar Challenge with a sizable safety factor. In fact, everyone who has driven the solar car attests that it handles significantly better than the vans that serve as our lead and chase vehicles.

First Track Testing

Posted Sun, 06/14/2009 - 11:10pm by Gerald Chang

A few engineers recently went to Auto City Speedway in Clio, MI to test the handling and reliability of the car at low speeds. I test drove the car for 35 miles at around 35mph on the small, half-mile track. There is a cross in the middle of the circuit so we had a blast driving some large figure eights. However, the support vehicles were the university minivans, which handled the course worse than Infinium. Sudeep and Kevin each had a chance to drive Lead while Jeremy followed in Chase.

It was a warm day, but I was driving just fast enough for the air duct to function; there were no fairings on, so a lot of air was scooped into the cockpit.

On a turn

Handling a turn

Infinium with Chase on the track

Infinium with Chase on the track

Infinium goes to the Wind Tunnel

Posted Sat, 06/13/2009 - 12:14pm by Steven Durbin

Infinium in the Wind Tunnel

Infinium in the Wind Tunnel

 

Yesterday, I went with four other team members to perform aerodynamic testing at the Jacobs Engineering wind tunnel. In preparation for testing, we taped bits of yarn to the car to help visualize the air flow over the body.  After securing the car to the platform, it was time to begin our testing. Being an Aerospace Engineering student, I was excited to be able to do some hands on testing, so I stayed in the tunnel for the first shakedown.  It was pretty cool.  The yarn we attached to the car allowed us to see how the air moved over the car, and what areas need to be improved.  After taking some notes, we moved on to using the smoke wand.  Smoke is another way to visualize flow over the car, but it allows you to analyze specific areas in more detail.  Using smoke was the most exciting part of the testing, but I can’t discuss our results because they are top secret : )

Pre-Unveiling Preparations

Posted Wed, 06/10/2009 - 10:14pm by jbrogers

The night before unveiling was packed full of good times as we scrambled to add polish to Infinium. A few of us stayed up really late making sure all the details were ready.

Aubrey was up the latest of all, sewing together the massive block M veil. He is quite the seamster, as he likes to be called. Hopefully the team will get many more years of use out of his hard work!

Eric spent several hours sanding and painting the steering wheel and control plate. Not only does the steering wheel allow the driver to control the car, but it also allows our engineers an outlet for creative expression.

Jeff was up also, preparing Infinium's LED lighting for the big day. The LED's are mounted on aluminum core printed circuit boards to provide maximum heat dissipation. This was the team's first attempt at aluminum core PCB's, and it turned out well! Thanks to Saturn Electronics for manufacturing the special boards and Visteon for providing the LED's.

Unveiling Coverage from the Ann Arbor News

Posted Sun, 06/07/2009 - 3:48pm by hilgerch

Picture by Eliyahu Gurfinkel, The Ann Arbor News

Senior John Federspiel, left, and sophomore Ethan Lardner, members of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team, wheel the 2009 model into its place for a promotional photo session on North Campus on Thursday morning.

University of Michigan students ready latest solar car for its day in the sun
by Dave Gershman, The Ann Arbor News
Saturday June 06, 2009, 12:01 AM

It's sleek, it's fast, and, yes, it's powered by the sun.

University of Michigan students have high hopes for the latest solar car.

"To win the World Solar Challenge in October," said John Federspiel, who will be a senior in mechanical engineering in the fall and is the crew chief on the solar car project.

The annual race across Australia, which draws college teams from across the globe, will be the first test of the car, dubbed Infinium.

U-M has placed third three times, though it has won a similar race, the North American Solar Challenge, five times.

Read the rest of the article at the Ann Arbor News

Sourcing Updates

Posted Wed, 05/20/2009 - 12:20am by hilgerch

All essential mechanical parts required for a rolling vehicle are now in.  This is a major milestone for the team, effectly marking the end of a first round of parts design, test, and production.  A special thanks goes out to all of the team’s dedicated manufacturing sponsors, including, Viper Technologies, Wolverine, Tel-X, Leonard Machine Tool, Stark Industrial, Roush, GT Fab, NC Machine, Leading Edge Cutting Solutions, and Pro-Tech.

Blaine Walker, Wolverine Machine-Holly, Michigan
Blaine Walker, Wolverine Machine-Holly, Michigan

Cute and Cuddly Visitor at the Workspace

Posted Thu, 05/07/2009 - 11:07pm by srohatgi

After several long days and many sleepless nights of sanding Bondo in preparation of painting, our work has finally payed off: we received the maize painted car back from Roush last Thursday! It was really rewarding to see our weeks of hard work and dedication come together to produce a sleek and stylish body. Up next, we’re sanding Bondo on the upper surface and populating the lower with mechanical parts.

In other news, we spent all day Saturday cleaning and organizing the workspace. While going through the containers of old parts from previous years, we found several old, but interesting artifacts. It was fun to take a personal tour through solar car history. It will also be great walking through a clean workspace.

During the week we also had a surprise visit from a new friend. A cute and cuddle cat stopped by the workspace to say hi. It provided a much needed break from work.  Dylan and Eric quickly made friends with the visitor.

Dylan and the cat.

Update from the Workspace

Posted Sat, 04/25/2009 - 10:36pm by jbrogers

Classes are over and work is starting to pick up in the Ypsilanti workspace. Despite the large amount of work required this week to prepare for painting of the body, spirits are high and everything is coming along nicely. Today was windy and rainy, but thanks to one of our Base-X rapid deployment structures, we were able to work through the nasty weather and keep on sanding bondo.

 

Gerald grinding Carbon Fiber
Base-X in Ypsilanti: Gerald grinding Carbon Fiber

 

Now that we are working full time in the workspace, more effort is being made to keep the space clean and organized. With the chassis successfully built into the body of the car, we were able to put away our long bulkhead layup plates and reclaim precious floor space. Jeremy Nash, on the micro-electrical division, spent a good chunk of the day organizing and cleaning the electrical work area. It hasn't been so clean in quite some time...

 

Clean Electrial Area
Clean Electrial Area