Shell Eco-marathon urban concept class
My Senior Design Capstone Project was to design an efficient vehicle to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2020 competition. I was on a team with 8 engineering students consisting of mechanical and electrical majors. Together, we designed a vehicle to compete in Sonoma, CA, in April 2020. Due to COVID-19 this competition was canceled.
The UrbanConcept class is a division in the competition that is new to LSU. We were the first team to compete and are steering the way for future Senior Design Teams. An UrbanConcept vehicle is unique because it closely resembles a modern car with 4 wheels, blinkers and headlights, a windshield wiper, and even luggage storage. This design is a drastic contrast to the sleek and low designs of the Prototype Class vehicles that LSU has competed in the past.
We had 4 subsystems for designing the vehicle: Build, Body, Propulsion, and Electrical. I am on the Build Team with Dylan DuGruy designing the chassis and steering systems.
As a member of this team, I was performing engineering analysis to substantiate the designs. The chassis requires static and dynamic impact stress analysis, material selection, deflection, and slip vs. tip analysis. A safety harness kept our driver, Coury Courtney, secured in the event of a collision. This harness required a force balance to determine if it can withstand a 200 N load in all directions. Stress analysis for static and dynamic impact cases was necessary to validate our design.
The preliminary design at this stage in the chassis design process is shown to the right. Our team decided to use a space-frame design, ideally putting every member in tension and compression to reduce weight.
My team from left to right: Mallory Bartow, Coury Courtney, Dante' Hebert, Chris Breath, Sam Sciortino, Dylan DeGruy, Garrett McCarrol, and Huyen Pham.
Preliminary chassis design from my subgroup, the Build Team, on Team #44's vehicle.
In addition to my subgroup responsibilities, I was the point of contact for my senior design team. This role meant that I was the person that contacted all advisers and handled finances when purchasing parts and making travel plans. My responsibilities, in the beginning, were focused on making travel plans and meeting with advisers for help in the design and analysis phase. Later my role included canceling all plans when the competition was canceled, ordered materials and parts, and maintaining the budget.
My team was also competing in off-track awards that Shell Eco-marathon competition hosted: Communication Award, Vehicle Design Award, Technical Innovation Award, Safety Award, and Perseverance & Spirit of the Event Award. To win the Communication Award, my team must document our design, manufacturing, and testing progress throughout the year on various social media platforms. You can see our Instagram feed below, where I have been spearheading the ideas and posts for this feed. Our team also has a page on Facebook that links directly to our Instagram. Please note that the 2021 and 2022 teams now control this page.
Due to COVID-19, our team did not get to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon competition. Our team was recognized as a Ben Burns Jr. Memorial Best Project Contender and Best Capstone Report Award for engineering a safe, lightweight, and highly fuel-efficient vehicle achieving 217 mpg.