ECOCAR-The Next Challenge
Overview
ECOCAR-The Next Challenge was an international collegiate competition held between 2009 and 2011. 16 Universities were selected for the competition that involved one school from Canada and rest from USA. The goal was to design and develop an environmentally friendly vehicle. Missouri S&T was one of the two teams that decided to develop a Fuel Cell Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (FC-PHEV).
Design and development involved powertrain design, installation and all required vehicle modifications necessary to produce a proof-of-concept vehicle that can be tested at GM proving grounds and EPA. Saturn Vue was donated by GM to all the schools. Competition was organized by DOE along with Argonne National Laboratory. Technical support was provided by GM.
Project Contributions
Led Mechanical Design of Missouri S&T Ecocar
Led a team of 10 mechanical engineering students to design Missouri S&T Ecocar
Designed all mechanical parts for power train installation. This included design of two battery packs, redesign of front and rear cradle, design of all other mounting components, cooling system design, hydrogen supply line layout and installation, brake cylinder relocation and brake line layout and installation
Manufactured all mechanical parts
Designs developed in NX
Analysis performed using hand calculations, Nastran, and Hypermesh
Collaborated with GM to test the vehicle at Milford proving grounds
Collaborated with EPA to perform a dyno test at their Michigan lab
Collaborated with local fabricators to manufacture battery pack components
