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Rose-Hulman
Students Meeting ‘Challenge’ to Develop More Efficient Vehicles
This is an important month in the transformation of a
gasoline-powered Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle by over 50
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology undergraduate students into a hybrid
vehicle that strives to minimize energy consumption, emissions and
greenhouse gas production in a unique international engineering design
competition.
Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility,
sponsored by General Motors (GM) and the Department of Energy (DOE), has
challenged students from 17 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities
to re-engineer the 2005 Equinox to incorporate a hybrid powertrain using
alternative fuels. The three-year program, started in 2004, follows GM's
Global Vehicle Development Process with competitions conducted at the
end of each academic year to showcase the teams' learning and vehicle
development.
At the halfway point in the mission, members of Rose-Hulman’s
Challenge X team engine group are working overtime this month in the
college’s vehicle research laboratory to install a 2.5L VM Motori diesel
engine into the frame of the SUV and integrate it into the advanced
powertrain and subsystems, specially designed and modified by other team
members.
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| Making Room For Biodiesel Motor: Members of
the Rose-Hulman Challenge X Team's Motor Group Riley Buttry (in
engine compartment), Todd Richard, Matt Mayer and Phillip Meiser
prepare to replace the Chevrolet Equinox's gasoline engine with a
new bio-diesel motor. |
Using bio-diesel offers a renewable diesel fuel
substitute that can be made by chemically combining a natural oil or fat
with an alcohol. Many vegetable oils, animal fats and recycled cooking
greases can be transformed into bio-diesel fuel. Bio-diesel is a
nontoxic, biodegradable fuel that has been proven to provide lower
exhaust emissions even when used in a blend called B20, which consists
of 20 percent bio-diesel and 80 percent petroleum-based diesel fuel.
With motorists digging deeper into their pockets at the
gasoline pump, more Americans are looking to trade their cars for
something that gets better mileage. GM, DOE, and other government and
industry leaders have challenged Rose-Hulman students to achieve better
fuel economy and lower emissions while maintaining the safety,
performance, utility and consumer appeal of a variety of vehicles.
"This is a premiere educational experience for our
students –- taking a concept from modeling to proof-of-concept to
prototype and dealing with real-world technical challenges every step of
the way," stated Zac Chambers, assistant professor of mechanical
engineering. He is joined by Marc Herniter, associate professor of
electrical and computer engineering, as co-faculty adviser on the
project.
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| Tight Squeeze: Rose-Hulman Challenge X Team
Motor Group members Gareth Carlson (left) and Riley Buttry examine
if the new bio-diesel motor will fit inside the engine compartment
of the Chevrolet Equinox SUV. |
Rose-Hulman’s team has chosen to use a powersplit
architecture, similar to the Toyota Prius, to achieve their goals. The
power from the engine and the two electric motors are blended through a
planetary gear set provided by Allison Electric and housed in a custom
transmission fabricated from two Borg-Warner F-150 Ford transfer cases.
Using math models for vehicle design and analysis, and subsystem control
using Model-Based Design with The MathWorks MATLAB(R) and Simulink(R)
systems, a control algorithm has been developed that will be exported to
a Motorola 565 computer microchip to be used in the Equinox.
“The supervisory controller has been designed and
debugged using models of the vehicle powertrain. Assuming our model of
the vehicle is accurate, we should be able to take our controller
developed for the model vehicle and use it with little modification in
the real vehicle,” Herniter said.
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| Modified Suspension: Examining a 2004 Pontiac
GTO independent rear suspension that will be incorporated into the
rear-wheel drive Rose-Hulman Challenge X vehicle
are students (from left) Garry Wieneke, Adam
Williams, Thomas Roberts and Clint Hammes. A new transmission will
be constructed in Year 3 of the project. |
“This is a cutting edge vehicle development project,
with a lot of aspects that have to work together to meet our overall
project objectives,” admits Clint Hammes, a junior mechanical engineer
who is co-leader of the fabrication group, which includes 18 students.
“I love seeing everything coming together. That’s why I wanted to become
an engineer . . . It’s been a long journey getting to this place.”
“Things have really picking up speed this winter. The
electrical and mechanical subgroups are working together more frequently
to implement critical parts of the vehicle,” says Neil Miller, a junior
mechanical engineering major and member of the controls group. “At
first, the project centered on research and then the vehicle’s
subsystems were modeled. Now, we’re testing and getting ready to apply
the subsystems in the vehicle. We’re getting closer to our goal each
day.”
During the first year, Rose-Hulman’s team earned second
place honors in the MathWorks design category, based on its outstanding
achievement in developing models for vehicle design and analysis, and
subsystem control using model-based design.
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| Electrical Controls Team: Using
state-of-the-art computer modeling software to plan aspects of the
electrical subsystems for Rose-Hulman's Challenge X vehicle are
(front row, from left) Erik Knutson, Neil Miller and Joseph Berg. In
the back row are Caleb Harper and Co-Faculty Adviser Marc Herniter. |
“Our students have done some great work (on the
project). We've developed a solid architecture and robust control
strategy which will give the competition a run for its money,” stated
Chambers, pointing out that Rose-Hulman is the only private college
among the 17 Challenge X institutions. He also highlighted that
membership of Rose-Hulman's team consists exclusively of undergraduate
students.
"These undergraduate students are getting a unique,
graduate-level educational experience. Everything they have learned and
are learning is being put into play on this project," the faculty
co-adviser stated.
Hammes added, “This is the best real-world experience
that I could have in an educational setting. Everything we’re doing here
I can see myself using and doing after I graduate.”
Riley Buttry, a junior mechanical engineering major who
is a member of the engine group, was attracted to the Challenge X
project because of his interest in working on cars.
“It’s interesting to get to strip a vehicle down and
then rebuild it with critical elements that you and other students have
planned. Now, we’re finding out if everything is going to fit into place
and work as planned,” Buttry said.
Matt Mayer, a junior mechanical engineering major, says
that he’s learned to appreciate the important role electrical systems
have in automotive vehicle.
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| Solving Problems On Paper: Challenge X team
members Kail Keusch (left) and Patrick Cunningham design a test for
the electrical system that controls the brake pedal in Rose-Hulman's
vehicle. |
“I had no clue about electrical aspects of an
automobile. I just knew that there were wiring harnesses that were
attached to the motor. Now, I have helped rebuild one of the harnesses
to adapt it for the bio-diesel engine that we (the engine group) are
putting in the vehicle,” Mayer said. “In reality, electrical components
make up 65 percent of the vehicle.”
Enhancing the Challenge X educational experience for
Rose-Hulman students is the opportunity to use state-of-the-art
technical computer software programs (Labview, Inca, MATLAB and Simulink)
that are commonplace in the automobile industry.
“There are a lot of practical applications with the
Challenge X project,” stated Miller, who became familiar with Labview
during an internship last summer with GM. “Our edge (in the competition)
is the number of people working on the project. We have 40 or more minds
working on one problem. We can come up with many more creative solutions
than other teams.”
The second-year competition will be conducted early this
summer at GM’s Phoenix vehicle development proving grounds. |
