The Shell Eco-marathon every year challenges high school and college student teams coming from around the world to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles. With annual events in the Americas, Europe and Asia, the winners are the teams that go the farthest distance using the least amount of energy. In the present paper the development of a structural frame for a Prototype car attending the competition is presented. The team is composed by students, researchers and professors from different scientific sectors of University of Salento and is called “Salento Eco Team”: the main objective of the team work is to identify the best solutions to achieve the target of the competition through a multidisciplinary investigation of all the technical aspects concerning the development of a ground vehicle with high energetic performance. The competition is based on general official rules provided by the Shell Ecomarathon organizers fixing the criteria of participation for the different teams. Participating teams can enter as Prototypes (three- or four-wheel vehicles) or Urban Concept (four-wheel vehicles similar in appearance to regular cars and which are fit for on-road use). Starting from the lesson learned at the first participation an optimization process has been implemented aimed to improve the global efficiency of the vehicle. The first aspect taken in account has concerned the choice of the structural materials for the car frame. In the first version the choice of the steel has led to a solution with weight properties not permitting high performance during the race: therefore, the use of aluminium alloys and structural concepts taken from the aerospace experiences has allowed the elaboration of structural solutions with high ratios of robustness to weight. The investigation has led to the identification of a solution optimized in terms of structural concept and the effect of the weight saving on the energetic performance has been evaluated. The next step of this study is the Prototype construction and test.
Structural frame development of a prototype car with high energetic performance
SCARSELLI, Gennaro;DONATEO, Teresa;
2011-01-01
Abstract
The Shell Eco-marathon every year challenges high school and college student teams coming from around the world to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles. With annual events in the Americas, Europe and Asia, the winners are the teams that go the farthest distance using the least amount of energy. In the present paper the development of a structural frame for a Prototype car attending the competition is presented. The team is composed by students, researchers and professors from different scientific sectors of University of Salento and is called “Salento Eco Team”: the main objective of the team work is to identify the best solutions to achieve the target of the competition through a multidisciplinary investigation of all the technical aspects concerning the development of a ground vehicle with high energetic performance. The competition is based on general official rules provided by the Shell Ecomarathon organizers fixing the criteria of participation for the different teams. Participating teams can enter as Prototypes (three- or four-wheel vehicles) or Urban Concept (four-wheel vehicles similar in appearance to regular cars and which are fit for on-road use). Starting from the lesson learned at the first participation an optimization process has been implemented aimed to improve the global efficiency of the vehicle. The first aspect taken in account has concerned the choice of the structural materials for the car frame. In the first version the choice of the steel has led to a solution with weight properties not permitting high performance during the race: therefore, the use of aluminium alloys and structural concepts taken from the aerospace experiences has allowed the elaboration of structural solutions with high ratios of robustness to weight. The investigation has led to the identification of a solution optimized in terms of structural concept and the effect of the weight saving on the energetic performance has been evaluated. The next step of this study is the Prototype construction and test.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
