drexel students take on the solar car challenge - battery power storage

This story is part of a special series to explore energy issues.
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When 11 engineering students at Dreiser University decided last year to take part in the competition to design and build superstructuresfuel-
They know that choosing solar power to power their homemade cars increases their cost, risk, and aerodynamic resistance.
They decided to fight for it.
Their journey to success speaks to a fact in a way that comes from the story of all 69 teams that took part in the Shell Eco game last weekend
American marathon
Putting enough young and smart people together to keep them focused on building a car, the obstacles that have proven too steep for big car companies don't seem so insurmountable. (
See "Picture: Building the Perfect solar car ")
But Dreiser students are all senior students who are about to graduate, and they will bring their skills into the job market, and they are part of a cadre, they believe they are moving into an economy that asks us how to do it.
Asaf Erlich, a student of electrical engineering at Drexel, said: "If you enter the energy sector, in the end, you will do alternative energy . ".
"There is no way to solve this problem.
"Solar chose a handful of 30 universities and 18 high school teams from the United States and Canada, who traveled to Houston for the competition and chose for their high school
Efficient vehicles for solar cells.
A more certain path is to use a traditional internal combustion engine and then reduce the consumption of gasoline or diesel by making the car as light and aerodynamic as possible.
This year's champion is Laval University in Quebec City, where he designed a stylish white bullet.
The shape of six ships
2,565 miles per gallon (
1,090 per liter). (
Related: "Breaking 2,500 miles, the Canadian team won the high-
"Competition for efficiency"
In contrast, Dreiser's students know that their homemade solar cars will never be mistaken for rockets.
In order to produce as much energy as possible, their cars must be wide.
"You want to have a profile so you can have a smooth flow of air on the car.
We want a tapered edge, "explains Lin Shuiqiang, a student in mechanical engineering at Drexel, who leads the finite element analysis to design the shape of the car.
"But we want to have as many areas of the body as possible to catch the sun.
But obviously the size of the car is a problem.
This increases the cost, time and everything else.
"But in the eyes of the students, there is an inevitable logic to use electric motors. The century-
The old internal combustion engine lost too much heat, the best efficiency is only about 30%, and the good motor can achieve more than 90% efficiency in converting energy into motion.
"It sounds better for me," said Elish . ". (
Related photos: cars of the future of shell ecologymarathon)
So while it's not easy to capture and store solar energy, the team believes the challenge is worth it.
Opportunities and Threats students not only build solar cars for eco-buildings
Marathon but required as a senior design program for all Dreiser students before graduation.
David Ho, a mechanical engineering student from Northeast Philadelphia, has formed a team of students from suburban Philadelphia and Taiwan and Belarus.
But what attracted him in the project was the wealth of experience needed to work in the car.
Mechanical and electrical engineers must work together.
"This is the best," he said . "
"Try to attract people from different disciplines.
"The team asked Adam Fontecchio, associate professor of Drexel, associate dean of undergraduate affairs at the School of Engineering, to be one of their project consultants. A forward-
At West Philadelphia school, founded in 1891, it made sense to think about energy projects, when Penn was the center of coal.
The driving force of the Industrial Revolution.
Fontecchio is a logical option as he is working on solar energy, including the possibility of a composite fluid that can be painted like a solar cell.
The team developed a briefing book and introduced their plans to Fontecchio.
"It was one of the most impressive meetings I had with the senior design student team," he recalls . ".
But he doesn't want them to think solar cars are a good idea.
He urged them to conduct a SWOT analysis, a method commonly used in the business world to decide whether to enter the product market or not.
They must list and consider the strengths and weaknesses of their team, as well as opportunities and threats from the outside.
It turned out that the students found many weaknesses.
Unlike many competing teams in the ecosystem
Dreisel's students come back year after year with the opportunity to learn from past mistakes, refine their vehicles, and they start from scratch.
They don't have a shop for a work agency.
Over the years, other schools have received huge corporate sponsorship, such as Drexel's main solar competitor in the ecosystem
With the support of Lockheed Martin, eysloane, GE Energy and others, the team at Purdue University took part in the marathon.
They know a street is being built at Purdue University.
Legal solar cars costing about $100,000.
Their budget for prototype cars (
Does not include all safety features required for actual driving on city streets)
They estimate about $3,000 to $4,000.
Nevertheless, students feel that the advantages they have in starting a new course outweigh their weaknesses.
"The opportunity is that if they succeed, it will be an impressive achievement," Fontecchio said . ".
"Soon after, however, the program taught students the most heartbreaking lesson in engineering.
Vince tantridi, a Drexel mechanical engineering student, concluded: "You can design more things on your computer than it actually works.
"The rules of time, money and competition prevent them from putting many ideas into the car.
Since their affordable solar cells are only 15% more efficient in capturing the sun and turning it into energy, they considered how much advantage it would be if they could join the panels that actually moved as the sun angle changed, as the cars circled the streets of downtown Houston.
But this mobile part is not allowed in the ecological environment. marathon rules.
A more practical problem is that their vehicles are too big to use any computer controlled by numbers (CNC)
Milling machines they can buy at school.
Instead, they have to completely cut, shape and polish the mold of the car by hand.
When the solar cells they ordered arrived, they started to make an array that covered the car, and although the arrangement coincided exactly with what they calculated on the computer, the measurements were bad.
"This is the moment they care about, and it's a good teaching moment for me," Fontecchio recalls . ".
"This is the reality of hand-made and mass-made --produced item.
"In the process of cutting the mold by hand, the size is only one-inch part.
But the team readjusted the arrangement and covered the front and back of their car with a row of solar cells, all with redundancy in case of problems.
In order for their vehicles to travel, they ordered an electric motor designed for bicycles from China.
"People are trying to make the bike very light, very fast, very efficient, so that's why the motor is almost perfect for this application," Erlich said . ".
At the time of the race, Dreiser's students knew that their car had already started working when it was in Houston, but it was still a nerve --
Through the technical test required by Eco, a very difficult process was completedmarathon rules.
After the school mascot at dreysell, it's called the "Green Dragon" and is actually more of a black carbon fiber wedge, with solar cells flashing blue occasionally.
After a long meeting at the measuring station, the car was deliveredahead to race. (Related: "All-
Women's team seek record
"Mileage Marathon" and "Picture: Design of High School shopping girl Award ")
"They are close to everything," said retired Shell researcher Bobby Bowden . " He shook his head as he wrote down their size.
The car is only an inch away from the race too wide and only an inch away from the height.
Team member Tancredi smiles and remains optimistic about becoming a trademark of the group.
"This is a good thing," he said . "
"That means we're not wasting anything.
"But once the team lined up with other student cars for the first run, they realized that their joules meter, the device that measures how much energy their solar cells produce, had stopped working
For a solar race, the day looks like a perfect cloudless day, quickly turning into a sultry hour in the relentless Houston sun.
Instead of running the class, they ran to analyze and correct their circuits before the track of the first race was closed, forcing them to wait until later in the afternoon when the sun was not ideal.
The pride and joy of John Toale, a mechanical engineer at Drexel, was the design, manufacture and welding of the aluminum chassis inside the car, and he had to leave the team in frustration, realizing that there was nothing he could do to correct the problem.
"The electrical staff are working on it," he said . ".
The team realized that their circuits were too complicated, so they decided to simplify the wiring.
By then, not only did they miss lunch, but they missed the chance to play Saturday because they redesigned the electronics.
On the last day of the game, on Sunday morning, they were ready to run.
On Sunday morning, there was no problem with the Green Dragon around the track.
Not only does this car have solar cells, but also storage and backup of old batteries that students find in Drexel workshop, and dismounting and downsizing their vehicles (
After verifying with the battery company and determining that it can be safely completed, as long as they add a protection circuit).
But the strict shell ecosystem
The solar car marathon rule requires the car not to use spare batteries, but to actually generate enough solar energy to drive the car, or more.
In the early angle
In the morning sun, the Green Dragon produces only 25% of the energy used by the vehicle on the court.
At noon, the Dreiser team was full of hope and walked on the track again in the hot sun.
This time, their solar cells generate 305 kilojoules of energy, as confirmed by the Joules meter they are using now.
This car can cross six with only 240 kilojoules. mile course.
They ran effectively.
Dreiser's students wanted to try again to get a better score, but later in the day the wind blew away a solar cell on the roof of their car.
Instead, when five other solar teams compete in the prototype car category, they watch from off-site, including the Purdue University and the only car that ran solar energy effectively last year, each ship is close
The silent vehicle is ten laps on the course.
But the reading from the Joules meter shows that no car can break the barrier to producing more solar energy than before.
Drexel became the only prototype solar vehicle to operate effectively, enabling the team to win the first prize of $1,500. (
Purdue won the same award in other competition categories, street-
Legal concept car for the city. )
In fact, the inherent efficiency of the motor (
Relative to internal combustion engine)
It was obvious in the 90-mile score of dreksell (144 kilometers)per kilowatt-hour.
Using American standardsS.
The new Chevrolet Volt, Nissan Leaf and other electric vehicles have been adopted by the Environmental Protection Agency, equivalent to 33. 7 kilowatt-
The energy of a gallon of gasoline is equivalent to 3,033 miles (1,290 km/l).
Drexel's graduate advisor, Pramod Abichandani, accompanied the team to Houston and was thrilled to be on the side of all the ups and downs of the weekend.
"I want to give them a good report," he said . " He was surprised by the question --
Solve students involved in batteries and circuits. "That is real-
World engineering!
It's great to see undergraduates do this.
"Although Dreiser's efficiency at peak times exceeds that of any internal combustion vehicle --
Power car of ecosystem
It is not qualified to win the grand prize in the marathon.
Adrian Jurgen, Shell's technical manager in charge of the Inter-American competition, works in the company's fuel research department, explaining in an email: "big winners are always internal combustion engine categories . ".
"Solar cars work as long as the sky is clear. e.
Solar cars depend on the efficiency of the sun and array panels.
"A stumbling block like this does not stop students like dreisel Green Dragon team members.
"You have to start somewhere," said Elish . ".