The teams’ objective was to deliver a completed car, that was safe, met all technical requirements, and achieved a fuel efficiency of at least 60 miles per gallon.
Sponsored by: Shell
Team Members
John Hurley Renze Luo Jamila Noguera-Devers Will Pileggi Ahmed Rashad Srinidhi Kulkarni Francisco Cevallos Suhaib Mohammed Saoud Alhammadi
Instructor: Gary Neal
Project Poster
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Project Video
Project Summary
Overview
The Shell Eco-Marathon team completed an Urban Concept Vehicle and competed in the 2023 Shell Eco-Marathon competition in Indianapolis, Indiana. This semesters’ team continued the work begun by the Fall 2022 team. The team was tasked with completing the vehicle, testing the vehicle, and ensuring that all safety and technical requirements were met.
Objectives
-Deliver a completed car
-The car must pass safety inspection outlined by competition guidelines
-The car must pass technical inspection outlines by competition guidelines
-The car must achieve a fuel efficiency of at least 60 miles per gallon
Approach
-For management, the team split into two groups: Body team and Chassis Team
-Body team dealt with doors, body panels, windows, and generally the exterior of the vehicle
-Chassis team worked on steering and braking
-Once all major tasks were completed, the teams worked together on testing and ensuring the car was ready for competition
-The team started by analyzing the needs noted by the Fall of 2022 team as well as the technical requirements for competition
-The team decided to prioritize simple solutions in the interest of time and ensuring the car would be ready for competition
-The team was on a time crunch from the beginning of the semester, so each sub team did research to see if they could use off the shelf products to complete their tasks
-When fabrication was necessary, team members started with SolidWorks drawings and analysis
-After virtually creating their part, the teams developed cardboard or rough prototypes, which eventually were modified and turned into the final product for the car
-For many tasks, such as building the doors, many iterations of prototypes were made and tested before a final product was installed
-Once completed, all tasks and fabricated parts were tested according to the competition technical requirements
-After the car was complete, the team conducted on-road testing at the Larson Test track, simulating many of the tasks required at competition such as a stopping distance test and a turning radius test
Outcomes
-The team successfully completed the build and testing of an Urban Concept vehicle
-At competition, the vehicle passed Shell’s rigorous technical and safety inspection on the first attempt
-The team recorded and official attempt with a fuel efficiency of 188 miles per gallon
-Through the experience of this year, this team as set a baseline for following teams to build from