What is the e-HPVC?
e-HPVC was inspired by the need for transportation in developing countries where having a car is not always the most realistic idea. The competition encourages a team of students to design and construct their own vehicle, as well as create a technical report that both documents the design process and includes analytical data regarding strength of material and aerodynamics of the vehicle. This competition requires a team of students to think critically and use sound engineering practices to create an entry for the competition that is safe to operate, efficient, and relatively inexpensive.
This our current main project for the 2023-2024 school year. The chief engineer of this year's e-HPVC Team is Tyler Erwin. |
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AdministrationWith a project of such a large scale comes numerous administrative challenges. Maintaining a budget, training students, meeting deadlines, and leading a large student body comes with numerous challenges. The administration team seeks to lighten the load of our very busy student body while also advancing our project every year. With the impact of the pandemic, the administration team seeks to develop a new system that allows us to compete annually.
Administration handles the promotion of our vehicle and oversees typical business operations seen within an engineering workplace. Additionally, the administration teams monitors the status of all students to access the machine shop. All documentation and reporting of the e-HPVC is handled by the administration team as well to create a top notch design report and presentation for the competition. The 2023 - 2024 Administration Team is led by Charlie Nino |
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ElectricFor the first time, ASME is introducing an electric drivetrain system into the competition! The electric team this year was in charge of finding an adaptable conversion kit to allow an electric drivetrain system while also allowing us to modify the system to meet the requirements of the competition. The electric team also developed an emergency stop mechanism through a relay into the kit to allow for the vehicle to be stopped by an exterior stand by in the event of an accident.
The rules allow the maximum capacity of a 500 W motor and a 10 Ah battery, both of which are the rating of our components. The motor is embedded within the wheel and connects to the motor controller located under the parcel box. The box is built and maintained in a unit that ensures the safety of the rider in the event of an ignition of the battery. The 2023 - 2024 Electric Team is led by Gordon Guclu |
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FairingIn order to maximize how fast we are at competition, it is important to produce the most aerodynamically sound vehicle. Our fairing team utilizes Fusion 360's free form modeling and Ansys's computational fluid dynamics analysis in order to produce a fairing that maximizes our speed, reduces drag, and creates aerodynamic improvements without limiting the rider. One of the most complex modeling techniques of the project, this team consists of engineers all the way from the graduate level to first year college students.
The 2023 - 2024 Fairing Team is led by Aitrieus Wright |
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ManufacturingThe manufacturing team is in charge of the fabrication of our entire vehicle to get ready for the competition. Our techs oversee the team within the College of Engineering's machine shop and teach club members Pipe Notching, Tube Cutting, Welding, Wood Cutting, Power Tools, Foam Molding, Fiberglass Molding, Carbon Fiber Wet Layups, Vacuum Bagging Techniques and many more manufacturing techniques.
For nearly our entire team this was the first year utilizing the machine shop to do welding and carbon fiber manufacturing, so it was extremely exciting to get to work this semester and build this project! The 2023 - 2024 Manufacturing Team is led by Michael Kamas and John Stephenson |
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Steering
With the complex design of our recumbent vehicle comes an even more complex steering system. Our steering team developed an 8 bar mechanism in order to allow our vehicle to turn within the 8 meter turn radius required of the competition. We were able to accomplish an astonishing 2.59 meter turn radius!
The 2023 - 2024 Steering Team is led by Levi Vary |
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Structures
The core team of the e-HPVC, structures maintains oversight of the virtual development of the vehicle. Structures handles the computer-aided design, finite element analysis, and manufacturing preliminaries of our vehicle. This year our team utilizes a combination of both Ansys and Autodesk Fusion 360 to develop our vehicle.
This was a first time for a lot of our newer members utilizing Autodesk's Fusion 360 but the software is very user-friendly and allowed our students to get up to speed rapidly, produce quality level parts for our final assembly, ensure the safety of our vehicle, and test the fitting of the final product! The 2023 - 2024 Structures Team is led by Eric Ling and Wilson Liao |
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