Engineering Experience 4: Design a Small Solar Vehicle/Team phoenix (team 11)

Introduction:[edit | edit source]

In the folowing wiki you'll find everything there is to know about team phoenix. Team phoenix is a mixture of 4 Flemish and 4 Chinese students who are building a small solar vehicle for the course Engineering Expierience 4 (EE4). The ultimate goal of the project is to win the race. This race will take place at the end of the semester, on a sunny day.

Gantt chart

Reports[edit | edit source]

Simulink Report
Sankey Diagram
Process Report
Caculations
Process report2

meetings[edit | edit source]

01/03/2011

topics	detials
1.discuss the body shape of our solar car	We got two ways after the discussion. In generally, the shape of the body is square. In this way, we will use 4 wheels and 2 of them will be motivated. On the other hand, the shape can be triangle. In this way, we will use 3 wheels, one set on the top, the other two set on the bottom. The advantage of this shape is light, and easy to set on track. However, it is hard to fix wheel on the body in this way. The result is not decided.
2.how does our vehicle travel on the track	We got two ways to make our solar car follow the track. The first way, we refer to the wheel of train, and we intend to set a wheel on the track. As a result, the wheel will guide our car to right direction. The other way is that we use the same way of roller coaster, which use 3 wheels on a single track, one is set on the track and the other two is set on both sides of the track. The result is not decided.
3.Check the price of component	We have checked the price of some components on the internet. In this way, we can choose the cheapest way to get our component
Other topics	1.how to set the solar plate so that it can receive the most energy. 2.Choosing the material for our wheels

08/03/2011

Topics	detials
1.discuss and decide the body shape of our solar car	We got two ways after the discussion. We will use 4 wheels and 2 of them will be motivated. At the same time, we will use two guiding wheels. In generally, the shape of the body is square. In this way, our vehicle will be more steady. On the other hand, the shape can be triangle. We intend to hollow some parts of the body in order to make our vehicle as slight as possible. Finally, we decided to design the body of our vehicle a kind of triangle combined with the steamline form like a "rocket".
2.assume the environment of the day of the race	We have previewed the weather of the race date. We can adjust our solar panel to the angle of sunlight on the day of the race so that it can collect energy from the sun as much as possible. Meanwhile, we thought about to set mirror on the vehicle so that the solar panel can absorb more sunlight reflected off the mirror, but it’s more complex and the weight will be a big problem.
3.distribute tasks	Zhou Xiao and Yan Song are responsible for the process report. Yang Tao are responsible for designing and calculating the gear ratio. Jonas are going to Antwerp to buy the axels and bearings and calculate constant of "m" of the solar cell. Michel are going to help Jonas and check "m" that Jonas has calculated. Maxime are responsible for finishing the wheel stuff. Bram are going to draw the frame of "rocket" with the solid work. Xu Weiwei will help Bram to draw and ask for the details of the 3D printer

Basic characteristic of the component part[edit | edit source]

Here is the constant that we use during the caculations
Weight in total : 800g
coefficient of rolling: 0.015
Surface area(look from frount): 0.05 m^2
Drag coefficient : 0.5
Power from the sun: 800w/m^2
Quality factor, N of Solar Panel: 1.256
Short-circuit current, Isc: 0.94 A
Open-circuit voltage, Voc: 0.56 V
Gravity: 9.81 N/kg
density of air: 1.29(kg/m3)