A team of West Virginia University engineering students received a 2009 Saturn VUE Monday as part of the EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge competition sponsored by General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. The car was donated by GM as part of the competition, in which 17 universities across the nation work to create an eco-friendly vehicle based on their own designs. "We will transform their donated vehicle into our designed vehicle," said Brody Conklin, senior mechanical engineering student and team leader. The team is made up of 26 engineering students split into mechanical, electrical and controls teams, as well as four public relations students and one marketing student. This is the second year of the competition. About a year and a half ago, the students wrote a proposal, applied and were accepted from 65 schools around the country, said Scott Wayne, faculty adviser for the project and assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. In the proposal, the students had to prove they had the knowledge, facilities and support to complete the project. Last year, the students worked on a design for the car and created simulations of the eco-friendly vehicle they planned to build. "This year, we’re getting the car and getting it to run in full hybrid," said Ryan Mesches, a senior mechanical engineering student. The car is equipped to be a hybrid, but the students will redesign and reprogram the car to meet the hybrid standards they chose last year. "The goal this year is to get to the milestone in the car industry known as the 65 percent buy off," Wayne said. This means that over the next year, the students will be making eco-friendly changes to the car until it is 65 percent ready to go into production, he said. "Our basic strategy is what’s called a parallel hybrid car," Wayne said. Some changes made to the car are driving on both electric and gas energy, having 1.3-liter European diesel engine instead of a gas engine, a lithium-ion battery and a GM two-mode electrically variable transmission, Wayne said. "A lot of work will be in design and control software," Conklin said. The car has nine computers on board that the team will reprogram, Mesches said. All of these changes will make the car more eco-friendly by improving fuel economy, reducing emissions and saving energy, Wayne said. "The hybrid vehicle can capture energy that would normally be lost when you stop the vehicle," he said. In addition, by changing to a diesel engine and using biodiesel as fuel, 20 percent of the fuel will come from a renewable resource, Wayne said. Currently, the car is operating at 28 mpg on the highway, but after the changes are in place, the car will have 27 mpg city and 35 mpg highway. "At times when the battery is fully charged or (the car) is under 30 mph, it will be fully electric," Mesches said. Their hybrid car will operate differently than other hybrids consumers can currently buy because instead of the engine always running in a low-power mode, it will be completely off, said Jonathan Zeto, senior aerospace engineering student. The car will have a total range, after running on both electric and biodiesel, of 200 miles, said Alan Talbott, senior aerospace engineering student. The team will have to have a running vehicle by March 3, Conklin said. The students will then take the car to Yuma, Ariz. to demonstrate the 65 percent buy off. At the end of the third year, the car should be at 95 percent buy off, Wayne said. Upon completion, the car should be eco-friendly and marketable to the general public, Conklin said. "(The competition) provides a broader scope. We have to take into consideration consumer acceptability," Conklin said. Although the team obviously wants to win the competition, Conklin said that by being part of the EcoCAR challenge, the hands-on experience as well as networking with other universities is valuable.
WVU Engineers compete to create an eco-friendly car
Published: Monday, October 5, 2009
Updated: Monday, October 5, 2009
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