Penn State Human Powered Vehicle

Overview

The main goal for Team Chain Reaction was to design and manufacture a functioning Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) that would compete at Michigan State University for the Human Powered Vehicle Challenge in early April 2020. Unfortunately, the team had to modify the final deliverables due to the Coronavirus. Therefore, the design and manufacturing of the bike ceased, and a thermoforming machine was designed to assist in the manufacturing process of bending polycarbonate and other materials for future teams and/or projects.

Objectives

The team’s main objectives were to fix the major components of the HPV, design and implement an aerodynamic windshield, and improve overall HPV aesthetics. Due to the Coronavirus, the team then had to focus on designing a plastic pressure thermoformer to heat and bend polycarbonate.

Approach

– Customer needs were collected from our sponsor and ASME HPVC rules and regulations.
– Concept generation occurred to brainstorm ideas for our project.
– External searches on patents and existing products were conducted to avoid “reinventing the wheel”.
– Weekly meetings with sponsor took place to communicate our progress.
– The Finite Element Analysis was used to analyze load requirements on HPV.
– SolidWorks designs were used to create CAD alpha and beta prototypes for both the HPV and vacuum thermoformer.
– Aerodynamic and drag tests were conducted to analyze the aerodynamic properties of the windshield.
– Final prototypes of the HPV and the vacuum thermoformer were created and satisfy all of our customer needs

Outcomes

– The aerodynamic windshield will increase the speed of HPV by reducing the drag force.
– The braking system is fixed on the current HPV.
– Our design of a vacuum thermoformer can be manufactured by a future Capstone team.
– The vacuum thermoformer can be a helpful machine in the Learning Factory for any project that requires bending polycarbonate or other materials.