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Recent Projects: Transportation
Dartmouth Formula Racing: Drivetrain And Controls
Team: Matt Elwin, Vissuta Jiwariyavej
Sponsor: Dartmouth Formula Racing, Hanover, N.H.
Advisor: Professor Minh Phan
Our project involves designing and building a new electric drivetrain for the 2009 Formula Hybrid Racer. We have selected two LEM-200 electric motors to power the cars and paired them with two Kelly motor controllers that are capable of providing torque control. We have opted to go without a mechanical differential in this year's car; instead we are mimicking the functionality of a differential with our control system.
Dartmouth Formula Racing: Engine/Generator
Team: Charles Richter, Eric Klem
Sponsor: Dartmouth Formula Racing, Hanover, N.H.
Advisor: Professor Charles Sullivan
The DFR Engine/Generator team was tasked with producing 10kw of power continuously for the entirety of the formula hybrid events. While producing the necessary power, it was decided that the design must be simple, reliable, and lightweight. To help with weight, an aluminum engine block was used along with a lightweight generator. Previous DFR groups have been plagued by a lack of power from low engine speed, which was solved using a continuously variable transmission. Prior to installation in the chassis, the system was tested using a bank of resistors as a load, and the system met the design specifications.
Dartmouth Formula Racing: Vehicle Dynamics
Team: Erik Bell, Erik Stig Lundqvist, Ben Sampson
Sponsor: Dartmouth Formula Racing, Hanover, N.H.
Advisor: Professor Solomon Diamond
Dartmouth Formula Racing designs, builds, and races formula-style race cars against other engineering schools. The vehicle dynamics package maximizes the traction between the tires and tarmac. The deliverables for this project include complete design and fabrication of the front and rear VD packages as well as a thorough understanding and optimization of the handling of this year's formula hybrid car. Analysis was done using CAD models, MATLAB simulations, static and dynamic force analysis, and racecar geometry software. Front and rear packages were both machined in the Thayer School machine shop.
This project received the 2009 Dartmouth Society of Engineers Prize.
Design And Construction Of Flight Data Recorder
Team: Benjamin Homelson-Meister, Oscar Molin, Jacob Jurmain
Sponsor: Charles Nearburg '72 Th'74, Dallas, Tex.
Advisor: Professor Stephen Taylor
Current methods of gathering flight characteristic information on small aircraft for certification purposes are expensive, slow, imprecise, and a bottleneck to development. They consist of having an FAA test pilot fly the plane multiple times and record observed instrument readings by hand. STOL Aviation, makers of the Arctic Tern airplane, commissioned our group to build a flight data recorder and sensor system for the Tern to replace the crude manual methods. This effort was entirely successful, and the FAA has displayed strong enthusiasm about the system's potential to revolutionize their certification process.
Diesel Engine Optimization For Vegetable Oil
Team: J. Watson Sallay, Dermott McHugh, Frederick Roy
Sponsor: The Big Green Bus, Hanover, N.H.
Advisor: Douglas Fraser
While treatment of vegetable oil prior to injection is very well understood, there is currently no literature that details how to optimize the performance of a diesel engine running on waste vegetable oil. The effects of a honed injector and increased injection pressure were tested on a single cylinder diesel engine. Because of repeated equipment failures, only a limited number of tests were performed, and there was no information on the data's precision or accuracy. However, power increased when the injection pressure was increased, and power decreased with a honed injector. Efficiency increased with higher injection pressure but cleanliness decreased.