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The Winning Solar Car A Design Guide for Solar Race Car Teams
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The Winning Solar Car A Design Guide for Solar Race Car Teams 2003 Edition, October 17, 2003
Description / Abstract:
Preface
Development of this book began in 1997, after the 1997 Sunrayce event. I had then been involved in designing and building three solar cars that participated in the 1993, 1995, and 1997 Sunrayce events, respectively. As the coach and advisor for a university solar car team, I had the problem of losing some key students with each project. The new students joining the team had the same design misconceptions that the veteran students had when they began and would want to make the same design mistakes that had been made on previous cars. Making the same design mistakes again provides a good educational experience for the students but does not further knowledge of solar car design. To make progress and continually improve our design efforts, I developed a course on solar car design and wrote notes to support the course. The purpose of the course was to get the new students up to speed, and the course focused on what is important in designing a competitive solar car. The notes became a little more formal each time I offered the course, and evolved into this book on solar car design.
The material in this book is based on my experiences designing and building five solar cars over the last twelve years. I have tried to keep the book general and offer design options so that it is not just about how the University of Missouri-Rolla team designs solar cars, but there is a certain amount of bias in our design philosophy. The book was designed to be used in a course that is open to upper-level students majoring in any field of engineering, mathematics, or science. Solar car design is an interdisciplinary topic, and the book was written to be suitable for the junior, senior, and graduate students who would be responsible for designing the car. Students entering the course are assumed to have a fundamental understanding of calculus, differential equations, physics, and chemistry. The book provides an introduction to all aspects of designing, manufacturing, and racing solar cars but does not provide all of the details on any topic. Design groups will have to go deeper than what is provided in this book to design any of the systems on the car. Everyone on the team needs to have a fundamental understanding of what is involved in designing, building, and racing the car. Understanding the "big picture" will help team members make design and manufacturing trade-offs to stay on schedule and allow time to test and practice racing the car. Testing and practice are an important part of being successful in the competition.
To do well in a solar car race, the team must have a good car, good drivers, good weather information, good strategy, and a well-trained support team. Doing a poor job on any of these elements will hurt the performance of the team in the race. The main focus of this book is on designing the car because that is the most difficult and time-consuming part of the project, but the team needs to recognize that the car is not the whole project. Driver training, accurate weather forecasting, race strategy, and practice in driving the race route make a huge difference in how well the team performs in the competition.
The first two chapters in the book are on energy management, and the information in these chapters is helpful when doing design trade-offs and developing a strategy for racing the car. Chapter 2 includes information on how to drive the car efficiently and is helpful in driver training. Chapter 3 focuses on design methodology and project management and provides an introduction to the general design process. The remaining chapters are about designing the different subsystems of the car. In each chapter, I have referred the reader to books and articles that I have found helpful on designing and building solar cars. The goal of the book is to provide an introduction to all aspects of designing, building, and racing solar cars.
Development of this book began in 1997, after the 1997 Sunrayce event. I had then been involved in designing and building three solar cars that participated in the 1993, 1995, and 1997 Sunrayce events, respectively. As the coach and advisor for a university solar car team, I had the problem of losing some key students with each project. The new students joining the team had the same design misconceptions that the veteran students had when they began and would want to make the same design mistakes that had been made on previous cars. Making the same design mistakes again provides a good educational experience for the students but does not further knowledge of solar car design. To make progress and continually improve our design efforts, I developed a course on solar car design and wrote notes to support the course. The purpose of the course was to get the new students up to speed, and the course focused on what is important in designing a competitive solar car. The notes became a little more formal each time I offered the course, and evolved into this book on solar car design.
The material in this book is based on my experiences designing and building five solar cars over the last twelve years. I have tried to keep the book general and offer design options so that it is not just about how the University of Missouri-Rolla team designs solar cars, but there is a certain amount of bias in our design philosophy. The book was designed to be used in a course that is open to upper-level students majoring in any field of engineering, mathematics, or science. Solar car design is an interdisciplinary topic, and the book was written to be suitable for the junior, senior, and graduate students who would be responsible for designing the car. Students entering the course are assumed to have a fundamental understanding of calculus, differential equations, physics, and chemistry. The book provides an introduction to all aspects of designing, manufacturing, and racing solar cars but does not provide all of the details on any topic. Design groups will have to go deeper than what is provided in this book to design any of the systems on the car. Everyone on the team needs to have a fundamental understanding of what is involved in designing, building, and racing the car. Understanding the "big picture" will help team members make design and manufacturing trade-offs to stay on schedule and allow time to test and practice racing the car. Testing and practice are an important part of being successful in the competition.
To do well in a solar car race, the team must have a good car, good drivers, good weather information, good strategy, and a well-trained support team. Doing a poor job on any of these elements will hurt the performance of the team in the race. The main focus of this book is on designing the car because that is the most difficult and time-consuming part of the project, but the team needs to recognize that the car is not the whole project. Driver training, accurate weather forecasting, race strategy, and practice in driving the race route make a huge difference in how well the team performs in the competition.
The first two chapters in the book are on energy management, and the information in these chapters is helpful when doing design trade-offs and developing a strategy for racing the car. Chapter 2 includes information on how to drive the car efficiently and is helpful in driver training. Chapter 3 focuses on design methodology and project management and provides an introduction to the general design process. The remaining chapters are about designing the different subsystems of the car. In each chapter, I have referred the reader to books and articles that I have found helpful on designing and building solar cars. The goal of the book is to provide an introduction to all aspects of designing, building, and racing solar cars.
The Winning Solar Car A Design Guide for Solar Race Car Teams 2003 Edition, October 17, 2003