Mechanical Engineers of TSR
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so I'm in my uni's electric vehicles society and we're taking part in shell eco marathon competition. We basically have to build an efficient racing car and they judge by how far we go with battery etc. I'm part of the power train team and theres only 3 of us so I have a big role of developing the electronics we'll be using as well as programming etc. One problem I'm having is I need a way to measure the speed of the car, I've done similar thing before with small robots where we had holes in the wheels and used a light sensor to count whenever we go past a hole, but obvs cant do the same for the race car as it has no holes, any suggestions?
Original post by bigboateng_
so I'm in my uni's electric vehicles society and we're taking part in shell eco marathon competition. We basically have to build an efficient racing car and they judge by how far we go with battery etc. I'm part of the power train team and theres only 3 of us so I have a big role of developing the electronics we'll be using as well as programming etc. One problem I'm having is I need a way to measure the speed of the car, I've done similar thing before with small robots where we had holes in the wheels and used a light sensor to count whenever we go past a hole, but obvs cant do the same for the race car as it has no holes, any suggestions?
Use a tachometer?
Original post by bigboateng_
One problem I'm having is I need a way to measure the speed of the car, I've done similar thing before with small robots where we had holes in the wheels and used a light sensor to count whenever we go past a hole, but obvs cant do the same for the race car as it has no holes, any suggestions?
Magnet and reed switch or hall effect sensor in place of hole and light sensor? Tachogenerator taken off your drivetrain? Slotted disc and an electro-optical sensor? There are plenty of tried and tested solutions about without needing to reinvent the wheel (no pun intended).
hall effect sensor is how we measured speed on our final year project
Original post by Like_A_G6
hall effect sensor is how we measured speed on our final year project
Original post by CurlyBen
Magnet and reed switch or hall effect sensor in place of hole and light sensor? Tachogenerator taken off your drivetrain? Slotted disc and an electro-optical sensor? There are plenty of tried and tested solutions about without needing to reinvent the wheel (no pun intended).
tnx, I will look into hall effect sensors
Original post by bigboateng_
so I'm in my uni's electric vehicles society and we're taking part in shell eco marathon competition. We basically have to build an efficient racing car and they judge by how far we go with battery etc. I'm part of the power train team and theres only 3 of us so I have a big role of developing the electronics we'll be using as well as programming etc. One problem I'm having is I need a way to measure the speed of the car, I've done similar thing before with small robots where we had holes in the wheels and used a light sensor to count whenever we go past a hole, but obvs cant do the same for the race car as it has no holes, any suggestions?
Well, you can allways add a disk with holes to the wheel for the sensor. Otherwise just take a wheel speed sensor of e.g. a motor bike (which will be e.g. a Hall Sensor). Three people for the powertrain is ambitious ... good luck!
Best UK universities for Automotive and Motorsport Engineering?
I heard Southampton is good for that.
Original post by tadjas
Best UK universities for Automotive and Motorsport Engineering?
Original post by TeeEm
I heard Southampton is good for that.
NO! You want to do a course entitled Motorsport Engineering or something with a similar sounding name where all of your modules are focussed around application of engineering to vehicles. At Southampton, there is no such module. There is one called Mechanical Engineering/Automotive, but it won't give you the exposure you need I wouldn't have thought. You want to be at Oxford Brookes as working with some people from there, they know so much about automotive engineering. Literally every bit of engineering taught is tailored or related to automotive vehicles.
bigboateng_, do you go to Southampton by any chance? The only uni I've known to teach python to mechanical engineers is Southampton. The new course structure puts heavy emphasis on being good at it. When I was there, we didn't use it until second year but now it's taught in first year. Anyway, if you are at Southampton, definitely speak to Professor Sharkh about electrical vehicles. You'll learn so much! Also take a look at the locomotive we built for our forth year project. It's a beast at recovering energy. We managed to cover twice the distance on recovered energy than any other team.
Original post by Like_A_G6
bigboateng_, do you go to Southampton by any chance? The only uni I've known to teach python to mechanical engineers is Southampton. The new course structure puts heavy emphasis on being good at it. When I was there, we didn't use it until second year but now it's taught in first year. Anyway, if you are at Southampton, definitely speak to Professor Sharkh about electrical vehicles. You'll learn so much! Also take a look at the locomotive we built for our forth year project. It's a beast at recovering energy. We managed to cover twice the distance on recovered energy than any other team.
bigboateng_, do you go to Southampton by any chance? The only uni I've known to teach python to mechanical engineers is Southampton. The new course structure puts heavy emphasis on being good at it. When I was there, we didn't use it until second year but now it's taught in first year. Anyway, if you are at Southampton, definitely speak to Professor Sharkh about electrical vehicles. You'll learn so much! Also take a look at the locomotive we built for our forth year project. It's a beast at recovering energy. We managed to cover twice the distance on recovered energy than any other team.
Yep I go to Southampton, & yeah they've started teaching python in first year, they pretty much want us to use it in every project we do, we currently have this project where we're generating aerofoil shapes using python and using some optimisation algorithms to make it as good as possible (low Cd, high Cl), tough but very interesting. And yeah Professor Sharkh is actually my electronics lecturer for this semester, he's pretty good. I'll definitely talk to him about electric vehicles, & ok, i shall look into your project!
Studied hard as hell for my year 2 materials/structural mechanics exam (this is the one exam I didn't want to fail the most) and got a poor pass for it da***....majority of my colleagues in my year have failed the exam, I don't blame them tbh it was hard as **** 
The effort I put in for that though definitely does not correlate with the mark I got! Now I've just missed out on a first class (for the first term) ffs.
The effort I put in for that though definitely does not correlate with the mark I got! Now I've just missed out on a first class (for the first term) ffs.
Also **** group projects. **** degree is pissing me off.
Original post by a10
Studied hard as hell for my year 2 materials/structural mechanics exam (this is the one exam I didn't want to fail the most) and got a poor pass for it da***....majority of my colleagues in my year have failed the exam, I don't blame them tbh it was hard as ****
The effort I put in for that though definitely does not correlate with the mark I got! Now I've just missed out on a first class (for the first term) ffs.
The effort I put in for that though definitely does not correlate with the mark I got! Now I've just missed out on a first class (for the first term) ffs.
At least you passed it.
In my first year we had a subject called statics and dynamics (basically an introduction to mechanical engineering excluding thermofluids type stuff) and it had a huge failure rate.
Definitely something to study hard in, though, to ensure you pass. So far it's been mainly the structures/solid mechanics stuff that I have used from university.
Original post by Smack
At least you passed it.
In my first year we had a subject called statics and dynamics (basically an introduction to mechanical engineering excluding thermofluids type stuff) and it had a huge failure rate.
At least you passed it.
In my first year we had a subject called statics and dynamics (basically an introduction to mechanical engineering excluding thermofluids type stuff) and it had a huge failure rate.
True, I'm just frustrated/disappointed. Not liking this year at all
We had the exact same thing happen at my uni as well (just ours was called engineering mechanics...and the failure rate is high)
Original post by Smack
Definitely something to study hard in, though, to ensure you pass. So far it's been mainly the structures/solid mechanics stuff that I have used from university.
Definitely something to study hard in, though, to ensure you pass. So far it's been mainly the structures/solid mechanics stuff that I have used from university.
Oh crap....just when I thought I would never see that stuff again
Does it get complex or is it just a matter of doing basic stress calculations?
Original post by a10
Oh crap....just when I thought I would never see that stuff again
Ultimately it depends on the type of roles you go for but I think that for most mechanical design roles you have a high chance of seeing it.
Does it get complex or is it just a matter of doing basic stress calculations?
It's not so much mathematically complex, but more complex as in what would be the actual stress distribution in this component/what would the loading be, and thus what do we actually need to calculate. There is FEA for more complex components or structural arrangements, and Roarks (Google it, it's available for free) gives plenty of formulas for many common loading scenarios, which produce somewhat conservative results.
Edit: Also, for certain applications (such as piping or pressure vessels) you will have a design code, such as one of the ASME ones, to help as well.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Smack
It's not so much mathematically complex, but more complex as in what would be the actual stress distribution in this component/what would the loading be, and thus what do we actually need to calculate. There is FEA for more complex components or structural arrangements, and Roarks (Google it, it's available for free) gives plenty of formulas for many common loading scenarios, which produce somewhat conservative results.
Edit: Also, for certain applications (such as piping or pressure vessels) you will have a design code, such as one of the ASME ones, to help as well.
It's not so much mathematically complex, but more complex as in what would be the actual stress distribution in this component/what would the loading be, and thus what do we actually need to calculate. There is FEA for more complex components or structural arrangements, and Roarks (Google it, it's available for free) gives plenty of formulas for many common loading scenarios, which produce somewhat conservative results.
Edit: Also, for certain applications (such as piping or pressure vessels) you will have a design code, such as one of the ASME ones, to help as well.
PRSOM!
Ah that's not so bad I guess but how did you get used to it in the beginning when you started your first design role? Did you ask lots of questions/have someone check it over for you because I would imagine as someone getting into that type of role for the very first time you'll be a bit lost and may need a bit of guidance?
Original post by a10
PRSOM!
Ah that's not so bad I guess but how did you get used to it in the beginning when you started your first design role? Did you ask lots of questions/have someone check it over for you because I would imagine as someone getting into that type of role for the very first time you'll be a bit lost and may need a bit of guidance?
Ah that's not so bad I guess but how did you get used to it in the beginning when you started your first design role? Did you ask lots of questions/have someone check it over for you because I would imagine as someone getting into that type of role for the very first time you'll be a bit lost and may need a bit of guidance?
Initially it did take a bit of getting used to as I was more than a year out of university by the time I went into a design role, and I found that if you don't use it (engineering principles, equations) you lose it. But generally as a graduate engineer you are encouraged to ask questions.
It's also part of the quality assurance process that all work is checked by someone else. So as well as having my own work checked, I was also checking other people's work (where appropriate).
One of the things that took a big of getting used to was the use of design codes and following their methods rather than just using a solely first principles based approach.
not sure if anyone can help me on this one, but I'm supposed to draw mohr's circle for a 'simple uniaxial stress in x-direction'. I have strain guage readings in y-direction and x-direction so that gives me
edit: its ok I found the answer
Unparseable latex formula:
and \epsilon_x_x
Unparseable latex formula:
. but because its uniaxial stress in x-direction does that mean \epsilon_y_y
Unparseable latex formula:
= 0?\epsilon_x_y
edit: its ok I found the answer
(edited 8 years ago)
yesterday I discovered this thing called input shaping, to reduce vibrations, the smoothness 
[video="youtube;sf1fAn4ezYk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf1fAn4ezYk[/video]
[video="youtube;sf1fAn4ezYk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf1fAn4ezYk[/video]
Original post by + polarity -
yesterday I discovered this thing called input shaping, to reduce vibrations, the smoothness
[video="youtube;sf1fAn4ezYk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf1fAn4ezYk[/video]
[video="youtube;sf1fAn4ezYk"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf1fAn4ezYk[/video]
that container one was super smooth af
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