A car designed for the Shell Eco-marathon competition with a focus on sustainable design
Group Members
Robert Jeeves, Cameron Levett, Connor McQuillan, Angelos Stavrinidis, Jian An TanSupervisors
Professor Roberto Lot, Professor Suleiman SharkhGiven an existing bodywork and chassis, the project has designed and manufactured steering, braking and powertrain systems to deliver a fully functioning car capable of competing at the Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2019, with the aim of achieving efficiency of 250 km/kWh. This was a pragmatic target based on the results of previous competitions, and the main deliverable of the project was a fully functioning and reliable car.
An innovative approach to sustainable design was taken by pursuing effective simplicity. Where it would have been easy to throw away existing components, conscientious design choices ensured wastefulness was limited. Batteries acquired by the previous team and earmarked for disposal were utilised, a chassis that could not fit a driver inside and a bodywork that did not allow the wheels to turn were amended. While this mentality might have been detrimental to raw performance, it was vital to ensure a simple, reliable design that would allow the team to compete.
Both computational and physical design and testing processes were carried out to aid our design process. Finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were used to help quantify the performance of the existing chassis and bodywork, and Simulink was utilised in powertrain development. Sanity checks such as full-scale wooden models were used to validate chassis concepts, and physical powertrain testing helped ensure successful implementation of the design. Finally, full car testing was carried out to ensure the legality and functionality of the final design.
An innovative approach to sustainable design was taken by pursuing effective simplicity. Where it would have been easy to throw away existing components, conscientious design choices ensured wastefulness was limited. Batteries acquired by the previous team and earmarked for disposal were utilised, a chassis that could not fit a driver inside and a bodywork that did not allow the wheels to turn were amended. While this mentality might have been detrimental to raw performance, it was vital to ensure a simple, reliable design that would allow the team to compete.
Both computational and physical design and testing processes were carried out to aid our design process. Finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were used to help quantify the performance of the existing chassis and bodywork, and Simulink was utilised in powertrain development. Sanity checks such as full-scale wooden models were used to validate chassis concepts, and physical powertrain testing helped ensure successful implementation of the design. Finally, full car testing was carried out to ensure the legality and functionality of the final design.
