NORTHEASTERN ELECTRIC RACING: PROJECTS AND MORE!
Since my first year, I've been a member of our Northeastern Electric Racing (NER) Team. We are working to design and manufacture an electrically powered, single-seat racecar to compete in the Formula Hybrid Competition. Working alongside teams of mechanical and electrical engineering students has been an amazing opportunity to learn about and gain a better understanding of one of my biggest passions: cars!
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Please scroll through and take a look at some of the work that I'm very proud of.
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NER won 1st place in the electric vehicle class in the 2021 Formula Hybrid + Electric Intercollegiate competition!
BRAKING SYSTEM
My First Project as a Mechanical Engineer
When I joined the club in it's first year as a freshman, we seriously lacked in manpower and design progress. Seeing the glass as half full, I took the opportunity to Co-lead our team's braking system design. With little to no understanding of automotive design, CAD work, etc., I learned on the fly and through countless iterations, developed a functioning braking system that's found its way onto our car! This photo shows an early iteration of our brake rotor, a part designed to optimize heat dissipation, minimize warping and keep the driver safe. The main challenge in completing this project was a lack of knowledge of parameters of the car such as sprung and unsprung mass, wheel and tire sizes, and the speed that we would be able to reach! For this reason, I elected to design the rotor, caliper and hydraulic system as a scalable, modular system. I completed calculations such as system pressure, clamp load, pedal force, etc. in order to cover as many bases as possible come the final design. We created prototypes which functioned well on the prototype vehicle but eventually had to be altered to optimize their performance on the final vehicle build.
PEDAL BOX
The second project I took on with NER was the design and manufacturing of the pedal box. Again, this was a part I began work on as a freshman and has been iterated upon from year to year and we've entered the manufacturing phase of our final design. Cost, weight and rule compliance restraints made the design work tricky. Similarly, a hugely important component on the pedal box is the over-travel switch (OTS). The OTS is a button or switch mounted behind or along the axis of rotation of the brake pedal which is meant to cut power to the vehicle and apply a mechanical handbrake to stop the vehicle as quickly as possible in the event of a loss of braking fluid/brake line pressure. I presented various designs for the pedal box consisting of pneumatic and/or torsional springs for pedal return, ergonomics optimization, and parts/cost minimization.
Throughout the process, I've learned about hydraulics, dynamics, and manufacturing techniques in detail and I can't wait to see the final design on the car!
STEERING SYSTEM
My most recent project on NER, I worked alongside two mechanical engineering students to finalize our steering system. Based on a steering rack salvaged from an old go-kart, we've worked to learn from the design choices made for the go-kart and integrate the system into our car. Calculating steering geometry, designing tie rods and steering arms and validating our work through team-wide design reviews comprise some of our main efforts. As the most technically detailed project I've worked on with NER, the learning is non-stop. Failures cost time and money, both of which the club has little to spare. As the car is developed as a whole, we have had to make changes to our system in order to minimize the space in the footwell that it requires. Again, as a safety-critical system, the steering system much function at all times and pass inspection with flying colors. Working as a team to ensure the car is safe and driveable hasn't been easy and we're extremely proud of how far we've come. Our combined and recently gained understanding of this system has given us confidence in our current design.