Reference no: EM132896869

SEM300 Thermo-Fluid System Design - Deakin University

Project: Thermal Management and Aerodynamics of the ASCEND Solar Car

The World Solar Challenge starts in Darwin in the Northern Territory and travels the Stuart Highway to Port Augusta and then via Highway 1 to finish in the City of Adelaide in South Australia (approximately 3000 kms). Deakin University has partnered with Acciona to participate in the cruiser class of this event in 2021. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the solar car will not be completed to compete in this year's competition. Instead, it will attempt to compete additionally in road races, such as the Targa Competition, before attempting the World Solar Challenge. This requires a rethinking of some of the design aspects of the Solar Car.

Mainly, three tasks are to be completed:

External Aerodynamics: The original solar car race required the car to coast with 80 to 100 km/h along mainly straight roads. In a general road competition, the traction of the car plays a much more important role. Hence, front and rear spoilers need to be added to ensure sufficient traction and aerodynamic balance of the car. The outer shell of the vehicle is provided as an STL file.

Battery Cooling: The batteries need to be cooled to work at optimal capacity. The solar car will use 38 packs of Prohelion battery packs, which have 88 individual batteries each. More detailed specs are provided on the unit website.

Passenger Cooling: To save energy, no air conditioner will be onboard the car. Hence, all passenger cooling needs to come from the environmental air. You need to determine the race conditions, estimate the heat that is entering the cabin and provide solutions to expel that heat. CAD files are provided on the unit website.

You will have to work on two submissions:

The Initial Design is due on 26 April 2021, 8pm. The weighting for the subtasks is the following:

The three main tasks need to contain your design ideas, some initial calculations and sketches. The sketches can be hand-drawn or using CAD software. You can (and should) also present ideas that you evaluate do not work as long as you can show why they are not working (you "successfully fail").

For the aerodynamic design, you should evaluate, how you can provide downdraft and how to obtain an aerodynamic balance (e.g. use Seminar 5).

For the battery cooling, you should evaluate the airflow through the batteries and how you would arrange the battery packs in terms of airflow. Use some simple evaluations for heat loss and pressure drop (e.g. use Seminar 4). You should have some sketches and rough estimates on how the air intake should look like.

For the cabin cooling, you should determine the heat that is transmitted to the race during a drive through the desert. You need to determine the insulation and the heat sources/losses (e.g. use Seminar 2). You should also have some sketches and rough estimates on how the air intake should look like.

There is no report template.

For the three subtasks, you need to refine your ideas (or use completely different ideas, if you deem your initial design not suitable). You need to provide CAD drawings of your designs and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations.

For the aerodynamic design, you should now have an Aeromap based on CFD results.

For the battery cooling, you should have one simulation that validates the pressure drop and the heat transfer from the batteries and another simulation on the air intake.
For the cabin cooling, you should have one simulation that estimates the circulation inside the (simplified) cabin.

Furthermore, you need to provide evidence of an integrated solution, which could be a simulation of all three subsystems combined.

You can also submit a 30 second movie, which is an advertisement or an extended animation on your design or for your engineering design team. This is for extra credit only.

Apart from the team report, you would also need to submit an individual report, that is due on 1 June 2021, 8pm. The individual report should contain your individual contribution to the team. There will be some overlap with the team report, but you should elaborate more on how you contributed. The individual report should be more process-oriented (how you did something) vs the team report that is more results- oriented (what is the final bottom line?). You can structure the individual report as a logbook, which means that you should start with it on day one.

From here on, this unit is student-driven, which means that you will arrange within your team to meet and work on this project together. As a 2 credit point unit, it is expected that you work around 20 hours per week on this project. We will support you with advice during the unstructured studio times in person and online.

Attachment:- Thermo-Fluid System Design.rar