Human Powered Vehicle Design

Overview

The challenge presented to our group, from our Sponsor Dr. Anne Martin, was to improve the design of the Penn State Human Powered Vehicle. Specifically, our team was tasked with making the design lighter, more manufacturable, and adding a fairing.

Objectives

– Decrease the weight of the original vehicle design by at least 25%.

– Make the vehicle design easier to manufacture given the resources available in the Learning Factory.

– Design an aerodynamic fairing that would decrease the overall drag force on the vehicle while being easily removable.

Approach

– First customer needs and requirements were collected through discussion with the sponsor.

– Engineering specifications were then associated with the determined customer needs.

– A review of past human powered vehicle designs as well as bike designs was conducted.

– Research into different types of air foils was also conducted.

– The team then brainstormed and evaluated potential prototype designs.

– The top three ranked air foil and chassis designs were created in SolidWorks.

– The chassis designs were evaluated using FEA analysis in Ansys.

– The air foil designs were evaluated using COMSOL Multiphysics software.

– The best performing designs were selected and combined to create a beta prototype.

– Small design adjustments were made to improve the overall prototype.

– Final FEA analysis of the vehicle was performed using Ansys software.

Outcomes

– The weight of the vehicle was reduced by 54%.

– A removable air foil was designed that effectively reduces drag on the frame of the vehicle.

– The manufacturing time of the vehicle was also reduced due to the removal of bends in the chassis.

– A final design and manufacturing plan for the Penn State team will be ready for the next Capstone project team.