This article on the Shell Eco-Marathon competition in the United Kingdom was on the “Gizmag” Blog recently.  I wonder what the difference is between the UK competition and the US competition, that the UK got such higher fuel mileage?  (See the previous blog entry.)  More inspiration and maybe ideas for the AFV Lab students.

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/go/2946/

Shell Eco-Marathon winner averages 9737mpg

By Mike Hanlon

The Shell Eco-Marathon is an annual fuel economy competition held in the UK with competitors ranging from 11 year-old students through to senior university academics and semi professional independent teams.

The rules are simple - build a machine which uses the least fuel possible while averaging averaging more than 15mph around a circuit. Beyond engine efficiency, there are many related design considerations which influence the final fuel economy returned, such as aerodynamics, rolling resistance and driving techniques to achieve the highest.

Last year saw a new world economy record set during the event when Team MicroJoule achieved an average fuel consumption of 10,705 mpg - to put that in perspective, that’s the distance from London to Melbourne, Australia on less than one gallon of fuel!

The French team beat their own previous world fuel consumption record by nearly 500mpg, their previous record having been set during the 2001 Eco-Marathon UK.

This year the event was held over two days of intense competition at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, Corby, Northants, and the French Microjoule, team from St Sebastien, again took the top step on the podium with an average fuel consumption of 9737 mpg.

The team won despite many problems over the weekend, suffering a broken chain and then mechanical problems which necessitated an overnight engine rebuild, but they still managed to beat their nearest rival by over 2000mpg.

While the best competitors in the Shell Eco-Marathon continually push the limits of the internal combustion engine, there are many classes and categories which encourage students to put theirknowledge into practice.

Overall results:1st - Microjoule (France): 9737mpg2nd - Team Callo (France): 6952mpg3rd - BSMM (Finland): 5667mpg

Class Awards:Best University - Eco Veiculo (Portugal): 4699mpgBest School - Newland House School (UK): 1645mpgBest UK - Team Green (Bath, UK): 5296mpgBest LPG - Team Green (Bath, UK): 3683mpgBest Hydrogen - PAC Car (Switzerland): 5718mpg

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/go/2946/

I haven’t posted anything to the blog lately, but not because I haven’t been searching for something. There has been a paucity of relevant articles lately. This article came across the “Gizmag” blog just today. One of our students, Troy Page, was working on a similar concept recently, but I never heard how it turned out. Perhaps bamboo as a structural element in a vehicle could be a viable project for the AFV Lab. Go to http://www.gizmag.com/calfee-design-bamboo-bikes/14378/ to see the original article

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/calfee-design-bamboo-bikes/14378/

Calfee Design building bamboo bikes for the first and third worlds

By Ben Coxworth

15:09 March 2, 2010

We’ve seen bikes with frames made out of aluminum, titanium, carbon fiber, and even IsoTruss tubes, but bamboo? Well yes, actually, we saw some here in Gizmag just last May. Back then, we were looking at some fairly basic city bikes built by Brazilian designer Flavio Deslandes. This time around the bamboo bikes are decidedly higher-end creations, built by Californian designer Craig Calfee, of Calfee Design. Although these bikes are definitely high-end, he’s also working on using bamboo to provide employment and cheap transportation for the people of Ghana.

Calfee started out building carbon fiber frames in 1987. In 1995, as a publicity stunt, he built a bamboo-framed errand bike. It spawned 11 others, built for staff, family and friends, who commented on how smooth the ride was. By 2005, he decided to go into production. He now offers road racing, triathlon, cyclocross and mountain models.

Bamboo is used for all the main tubes, although you can choose carbon chainstays for extra stiffness. The bamboo is smoked and heat treated before construction, to prevent splitting. The tubes are joined together using hemp fiber lugs, then everything gets coated with polyurethane.

The finished frames weigh four to six pounds, and are said to offer excellent vibration damping, while also providing good stiffness. Calfee claims that the bamboo is very crash-resistant, to the point where he doesn’t even offer carbon mountain bike frames anymore. Bamboo also, of course, has a much lower carbon footprint than traditional frame materials - only water and sun are required to produce it.

While Craig’s bikes are definitely aimed at the affluent buyer, he’s also trying to get inexpensive bamboo bikes into the hands of villagers in Ghana. In 1984, he came up with the idea of a bamboo bike program while visiting Africa. He noticed that there was a lot of bamboo, but not enough cargo bikes, and not enough jobs. Since that time, he has been working on teaching local entrepreneurs how to build their own bamboo bikes, and looking for sponsors to provide funding and supplies. He plans to extend the project to other developing nations.

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/calfee-design-bamboo-bikes/14378/

This article was on the ScienceDaily website today.  From below:  “The team hopes to improve on the current Dalhousie record of 420 kilometres per litre on regular unleaded gas, with a vision to beat the record at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas of 1,445 kilometers per litre.” 420 km/l equates to 988 mpg and 1445 km/l equates to almost 3400 mpg.  Maybe the AFV Lab Supermileage team can get some ideas from this article.

Source:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090218223151.htm

Engineering Students Build And Design A Fuel-Stingy Vehicle

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Dalhousie University mechanical engineering students and the “Maritime Mileage Machine.” (Credit: Image courtesy of Dalhousie University)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 28, 2009) — With its light body made of Kevlar, sleek aerodynamic design and three Olympic-racing wheelchair tires, it looks like something that escaped from the Batcave.

But actually it’s a school project by a team of six Dalhousie University senior mechanical engineering students.

The ultimate in fuel efficiency, the “Maritime Mileage Machine” will be entered in the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas taking place on April 15 to 18 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The event challenges high school and post-secondary students across Canada, the U.S., Mexico and South America to design and build a vehicle that will drive the farthest using the least amount of energy.

The students who win will have a chance to make history and take home thousands of dollars in prize money.

“The main thing is to keep it simple and efficient,” explains Matthew Harding, the team’s manager. Other members include Liam Jeffrey, Craig Arthur, Chad Batterton, Brad Marcus and the driver Carmen McKnight. “The whole point of the competition is maximum fuel economy.”

The vehicle runs on a 35-cc engine—“It’s basically a big weed whacker,” says Mr. Harding.

The team hopes to improve on the current Dalhousie record of 420 kilometres per litre on regular unleaded gas, with a vision to beat the record at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas of 1,445 kilometers per litre.

“Considering the average car is getting about 30 miles per gallon (or 13 kms per litre), that’s pretty drastic.”

Carmen McKnight, selected for her petite size, will drive the vehicle while lying in a hammock-like seat with a headrest to prop up her head. She steers the car using handles on either side of her body.

Circuits are about seven miles long and the race will last roughly 45 minutes a circuit.

The team’s goal is to fine-tune their model and get in some practice time to be ready for the competition in April.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090218223151.htm

Came across this item in the Science Daily newsletter I get. At first glance, it would seem to be a simple solution to the problem of efficient vehicle propulsion. The concept is to use compressed air to store energy instead of a battery as in a conventional hybrid vehicle. The curious twist here is using the compressed air to assist the conventional internal combustion engine by either direct pressure on the pistons or as a turbocharger. The theory seems to have merit; compressed air is as viable a means of storing energy as a battery and turbocharging can drastically improve the efficiency of an ICE. However, my personal experience with compressed air as a means of energy storage and transfer is that it is highly inefficient. There is quite a bit of heat generated when air is compressed. After all, a diesel engine depends upon the same heat of compression to ignite its fuel. Shop air compressors require substantial cooling fins on both compressor heads and on connecting piping and large fans to keep compressors from self destructing. And shop air is usually only about 120 psi or so. All this heat that must be expelled is lost energy. As a practical matter, I am skeptical of being able to design a compressor and pressure storage tank with enough capacity to overcome this heat loss and be practical and still be lighter than the electric motor, generator, and battery of a hybrid like the Prius or Escape.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090131113216.htm

Saving Gas: Pneumatic Hybrid Engine Is Much Cheaper Than Electric Hybrids And Almost As Economical

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Physics laboratory technician Till Coester works on the new hybrid engine being checked thoroughly on the test stand. (Credit: Photo: P. Rüegg / ETH Zurich)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2009) — A pneumatic hybrid engine could be used to power vehicles in the future. The benefit of this technology: it is much cheaper than today’s electric hybrids and almost just as economical.

The Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota has built a car, the “Prius”, which is seen as a concept for the future. It uses an electric hybrid engine to save fuel while still offering the usual drivability standards. However, this vehicle has a serious disadvantage. It is expensive and is unaffordable especially for consumers in up-and-coming countries such as China and India that are increasing rapidly their mobility demands. In addition, the battery needed by the electric hybrid as an energy storage device is heavy and expensive. Last but not least, the technology in the coupling between the gasoline engine and the electric drive is very complicated.

Simpler and cheaper

This is why Lino Guzzella, Professor of Thermotronics, does not think the electric hybrid is the only solution. As an experienced engineer, he therefore looked for an approach that was simpler than an electric hybrid but remained affordable even for people with less purchasing power. Guzzella explains that “The apple must be ripe but still hang just low enough to stay within reach.” The ‘fruit’ ripening in his group is the pneumatic hybrid drive. The concept is simpler than that of an electric hybrid: the new hybrid engine has a compressed air tank connected to the engine instead of a battery unit. When required, e.g. when starting from rest or after changing gear, compressed air flows into the engine through an electronically controlled valve. If fuel is also injected, the engine responds quickly. Although the system used to control the valve is also technologically complex, this challenge can be mastered nowadays thanks to powerful algorithms and computer systems.

The compressed air supply also allows the engine constructors led by Lino Guzzella to achieve extreme downsizing. Conventional car engines can have peak powers of 150 hp or more, but usually need no more than 30 hp for everyday driving. Downsizing the engine halves the number of cylinders from four to two. This also halves frictional losses and increases the engine’s average efficiency. To keep the maximum power and thus satisfy the consumer’s drivability demands, the engine is highly supercharged by a turbocharger – which exploits the exhaust gas enthalpy as an energy source, and which boosts the to the desired levels..

Efficiency up by a third

Initial tests on the test stand in the ETH Zurich Machinery Laboratory show that Guzzella and his group are on the right track. They were able to increase the engine’s average efficiency in the European Test Cycle from 18 to 24 percent. This corresponds to a fuel saving of one third. Energy savings of up to 50 percent are achievable in purely urban traffic, because the engine can pump air into the compressed air tank during braking, thus recovering the kinetic energy.

Although the fuel saving achieved by the pneumatic hybrid is not as large as that of an electric hybrid, it still amounts to 80 percent of the latter. In return, the price-performance ratio is distinctly better. So good, in fact, that Guzzella can imagine the pneumatic hybrid also being suitable for use in poorer countries. He estimates the additional costs compared to a conventional gasoline engine to be approximately 20 percent. On the other hand, the additional costs for an electric hybrid are calculated to be at least 200 percent.

Motor manufacturers interested

The new engine concept has aroused the interest of several major motor companies and automitive suppliers, who have obtained information on-site. Some of the ideas of the new concept have already been patented. Only the financial crisis and the global recession worry Guzzella slightly. He says that these are difficult times in which to launch a new drive concept. Nevertheless, he is convinced that he will find people interested in adopting this system, since no other technology is on the horizon that could replace the internal combustion engine, even in the next two decades. This is why the way leads via hybrid concepts, which remain affordable while retaining the advantages of a gasoline or diesel engine.

Source:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090131113216.htm