BYU engineering students won two first-place awards recently at the third annual Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Formula Hybrid challenge in New Hampshire.
The team won both the Thayer School of Engineering Dean’s Award for Innovation from Dartmouth College and the Chrysler Award for Best Hybrid System Engineering. The team also placed second in the business plan aspect of the competition.
According to its Web site, Formula Hybrid is a design and engineering challenge for undergraduate and graduate college and university students. They must design, build and compete with an open-wheel, single-seat racecar. This car must conform to a formula that emphasizes drive train innovation and fuel efficiency in a high-performance application.
This was the first time a hybrid hydraulic was entered in this competition. The BYU engineers, part of the Fulton College of Engineering and Technology capstone program, said they felt a hybrid hydraulic race car would be more appropriate for the tasks required in the specific challenge they were facing. The design of the hydraulic car makes it ideal for quick starts and stops as well as quick acceleration, which is what comprises most of the competition.
Brent Warr, a recent engineering graduate from West Valley City, said the project was a huge success and the knowledge gained was well worth it. He attributed the team’s success to the choice individuals on the team.
Members of the team said they got their idea from an article about hydraulic systems in FedEx and UPS trucks. FedEx and UPS use hydraulic systems in their trucks in the city because they are ideal for stop and go driving.
But the BYU car doesn’t use a battery and gets its extra boost from a hydraulic pump. The pump captures and stores energy that would normally be lost while braking.
The team decided to use a hydraulic design that differed from other contestants’ more conventional electric hybrids such as the Toyota Prius or Honda Insight. Those electrical hybrids supplement their gas power with lithium batteries.
“Hydraulics work really well for hard stops and fast starts,” Warr said. “They also work well in heavy vehicles like freight and school buses.”
BYU engineers said for everyday driving purposes an electric hybrid design is still the better option for now because of its greater storage capacity for longer-range driving. BMW and other automakers are currently designing and testing hydraulic hybrid cars for everyday use.
The project was even more involved than a normal capstone project. It included a 13-man team that was divided into sub-teams. Each sub-team would work on a different aspect of the car design and then they would come together to make all the elements work.
The BYU team had intended to race the car. They had been given permission by the organization to race their hydraulic car in the field of electric hybrids as long as it was safe. A month or so before the competition they were informed they would not be allowed to race.
The team decided to take its car to the competition anyway and came away with two awards.
“One of the biggest accomplishments,” Lee Hoskins, one of the team leaders, said, “is that in less than a 12-month period we were able to build a car from scratch that had never been done before. Our team with a budget of $35,000 did what a company with millions of dollars would have a hard time doing.”
“One of the engineering skills that we try to teach to our students is to identify customer needs and come up with an innovative answer,” said Robert Todd, an engineering professor, in a press release. “It’s not just about improving fuel economy, but improving fuel economy in an innovative way for a particular application. That application (for this competition) was hairpin turns and very quick acceleration and deceleration. The rate at which hybrid electric cars accelerate is limited by the battery.”
The team’s hybrid impressed both judges and contestants with its unique hydraulic system.
“The team from Brigham Young impressed everyone with their work,” said Don Anderson, chief design judge representing Chrysler, in a press release. “I chose them because they considered the overall vehicle as a system and critically examined all possible hybrid alternatives.”
Warr said what he really learned was project management. He said with such a huge project you have to learn how to break things into specific tasks and give yourself a deadline to get things done. This project taught him how to become an engineering manager.
Hoskins said he expects BYU to build on the success his team has had.
“There isn’t a better experience in the undergraduate engineering program than this,” Hoskins said.
BYU’s team included Lee Hoskins, Benton Russell, Bobby Yen, Brandon Woodland, Brent Warr, David Brunner, David Marriott, Dustin Kleinman, Jeff Harris, John Warr, Tom Heng, Rhett Phillips and Timothy Jenkins.
Copyright Brigham Young University 4 Jun 2009
