Quarterly Cow Winter 2006 - Wisconsin Hybrid

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Volume 7/No.1
UARTERLY
OW
Q
C
March 2006
A n u p d a t e f r o m t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f W i s c o n s i n - M a d i s o n H y b r i d Ve h i c l e Te a m
The K enseth I nspired P aint J ob
By Glenn Bower
A
s part of the fall 2004 Challenge X
Workshop, each team drew a number which would represent their
vehicle for the next three years. Wisconsin
had the fortune of picking the largest number – 17. This represented the total number
of teams in Challenge X. At first, Wisconsin
was disappointed; a two digit number! That
had not happened since the 1999 FutureCar
competition where the students craftily used
a roman numeral.
It was then brought to our attention that this
was the number of the DeWalt Ford driven
by Matt Kenseth of Cambridge, Wisconsin.
Cambridge is just 25 miles from Madison
and similar to our Hybrid team, Kenseth
ruled Nascar in 2003 by winning the last
Winston Cup Championship (now the
Nextel Cup). Against all odds and not
always the fan favorite, Kenseth methodi-
cally scrapped his way through the Winston
racing schedule always keeping in front of
his competition. This was the image for
Wisconsin!
Using the current DeWalt Ford Paint scheme
as a model, students developed a Paintshop
version on the Equinox. The DeWalt
scheme is black and yellow so some changes
would be necessary. In the past 5 paint
schemes, Wisconsin had utilized the Badger
colors of red and white. With the new competition, it was decided to break tradition
and use Red and Black!
The students stripped the vehicle interior
and it was delivered to Symdon Motors for
painting. Since the vehicle was originally
galaxy silver metallic, the entire vehicle
including the door jambs and inner fenders
needed to be painted. With pride and dedication, the technicians accepted the challenge of a two tone paint job and did a wonderful job.
The MOOVADA has been given its identity!
Wisconsin will be contacting the Kenseth
racing team in hopes of obtaining a photo
shoot and an autographed MOOVADA!
Above: The Moovada painted in Wisconsin colors, red and black
Left to right: A view of the hood, a view of the body framework after painting, Matt Kenseth’s Number 17 DeWalt NASCAR
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Where are the y no w?
Hybrid Vehicle Team Alumni Section
By: Liz Casson
Jennifer Topinka was involved with the
team from 1998 to 2001. She started in the
Mechanical Group with absolutely NO
knowledge about cars.
(Where's the
engine?). Thanks to Neel Vasavada, John
Butcher, Anton and the gang she learned alot
in no time. Later, she moved onto becoming
Business Group Leader and eventually the
Team Leader (2000) while along the way
taking thousands of photos!
After obtaining her undergrad at the UWMadison, Jennifer acquired her masters in
mechanical engineering at MIT with a
research focus on internal combustion
engines. Currently she works at GE Global
Research on the next generation freight
locomotive doing advanced diesel combustion work.
Neel Vasavada was involved with the team
for four years during his undergrad career
where he got his hands into almost every
aspect of the project. He held the positions
of Business Group and HEV Group Leader.
Since graduation Neel has worked for EFI
Technology and started his own business,
Apex Speed Technology, with four other
Futurecar alumni in Southern California.
His business specializes in the sales and
installations of electronic systems for professional race cars. So far he has worked
with data acquisition systems, fuel injection/engine management, in-car video systems, wireless telemetry, and IT systems.
Neel Vasavada
2
Aaron Sullivan was on the 1997 futurecar
team working on the Dodge Intrepid and
held the position of Power Management
Team Leader. After graduation, he went to
work with GM in fuel economy and performance simulation development. After
which Aaron has worked a series of jobs in
performance integration in the areas of energy, chassis controls and ride and handling.
Various vehicles he has worked on include
the Saturn VUE, Chevy Silverado Hybrid,
Chevy Equinox/Pontiac Torrent and
Caddilac SRX.
Aaron Sullivan
Last summer Ryan was wed to Michele
Garner who has two daughters, Alison and
Rachel.
Mike Koplin was with the team from 1995
to 2000. While on the team he was
Mechanical group leader for a time and in
1999 he was Team Leader.
After college, Mike did Manufacturing
Consulting for a few years, helping companies to develop new manufacturing strategies. He worked with 6 firms to setup manufacturing cells, which reduced their lead
time by 50-70%. Since then, he joined GE
Healthcare and has worked in Lean
Manufacturing,
Sourcing,
Materials
Management, and Customer Order
Fulfillment all while earning his Six Sigma
Black Belt certification! Currently, Mike is
the Global OPSI & Distribution Center
Manager at the Legacy Datex-Ohmeda facility in Madison. In this role, he works with
Sales and Marketing to forecast production
requirements and provide revenue estimates....all while ensuring that they ship
to their customers on time.
Ryan Rowe was with the team from 2000 to
2001 and was on the SAE Formula team in
1998. In 2001 he held the position of the
Information Group Leader. After graduating
from UW- Madison, Ryan accepted a position at Oshkosh Truck Corporation in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Since then he has worked in many deparments. In the components group, he worked
on the design of gearing components for drivetrain systems, axles and differentials.
With the aircraft rescue and fire fighting
department, he worked on all facets of fire
truck design and manufacturing support. He
lead a team of engineers in the advance
products group in the design of hybrid
power plant for military vehicles while also
being involved with the Darpa Competition.
He was the manager of the new product
development shop which handles all vehicle
development at the Oshkosh new product
development facility. Currently he is the
interim director of engineering at Geesink
Norba Group in Europe.
Mike Koplin
Mike has had the opportunity to travel to
Beijing, China for six months while working
for GE and he is currently working towards
his MBA at the University of Chicago.
Traveling South for the Winter
By Liz Casson
A
fter working through winter break,
the electric drive was finally mounted in the rear of the Moovada and
almost ready to drive gasoline hybrid. The
UW Hybrid Vehicle Team set a goal for
themselves earlier in the year to have the
Moovada driving gasoline hybrid by mid
January so that they could take it south to
test the electric drive. However, due to an
unforeseen technical issue, the Moovada
could not be driven safely as a hybrid.
Regardless, the vehicle was ready for public
display.
Leaving January 12, 2006, the first stop was
Hinsdale High School in Hinsdale, Illinois.
Here, the Moovada was displayed in the
Field House during the student’s lunch hour.
Many students as well as faculty stopped by
to see our current progress and to ask questions about the future of hybrid vehicles. A
few students were even interested about how
difficult it is to be admitted to the University
because they are interested in participating
in the vehicle projects at the UW-Madison.
Mississippi style catfish at a local place
called Rueben’s. As a result, our new member Matt Michalak who ate three whole catfish acquired the nickname Catfish Matt.
The next day was spent sharing ideas and
assisting the MS team with any questions
they had. The Moovada was brought out and
put on their lift so that the MS team could
easily see our design. For lunch, the UW
team was again treated to local cuisine at a
BBQ restaurant called Little Dooey’s.
The afternoon was spent reviewing the control strategy and helping the MS team start
their diesel engine. At about 8:30 that night
the engine roared to life!
The morning of the 15th of January was
spent answering lastminute questions, visiting, and taking photos. In the afternoon,
after fixing the trailer lights, the teams said
their good-byes and the UW team headed
back to Madison.
The UW team stands in the shipping room
with stacks of ladders to the ceiling!
After leaving Hinsdale, the team took the
rest of the afternoon to visit the Werner
Manufacturing Facility near O’Hare Airport.
Werner’s President, Craig Werner, gave the
team a personal in depth tour of the facilty.
The final destination of the trip was
Starksville, MS to visit the Mississippi State
Challenge X Team. Upon arriving the afternoon of the 13th, the Mississippi team gave
us a tour of their new vehicle research center. For dinner, the UW team was treated to
Glenn Bower and Dan Mehr put their
hands into a large bin of aluminum punch
outs at the Werner Factory.
Danny Bocci talks to a student about the
Moovada and Challenge X
MS and WI Teams around the Moovada
Chair:.................................Liz Casson
Editors............................Dave Ahlman
Contributors:...................Glenn Bower
Liz Casson
DesktopPublishing:............Liz Casson
Quarterly Cow is published by the Hybrid Vehicle team of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, College of Engineering. Please address all correspondence to Hybrid Vehicle Team Editor, 1550 Engineering Drive, Madison, WI
53706, email at grbower@wisc.edu or call 608-263-7252.
The Moovada and MS Team’s Equinox pose
in front of the new CAVS Building
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I CN H T A E L G L R E A NT G I E O X N
By: Glenn Bower
O
ne of the major emphasis of the current premier vehicle competition,
Challenge X, is to integrate part of
the design process into the course curriculum. Although a grand idea, sometimes the
necessary dedication, drive and innovation
is lacking from the students who just need to
graduate. They have no real desire for meeting a personal goal or competing, just passing the course. Having experienced this,
Wisconsin has developed a novel way of
integrating Challenge X into the course curriculum.
Wisconsin uses three techniques for completing design goals. First, the majority of
the design is completed by independent
study students. Typically, these students
volunteered as freshman or sophomores and
have an extensive background in hybrid
design and testing. Nine independent study
credits can be used in leau of technical electives towards a student's graduation requirements.
Second, designs that are beyond the aptitude of the team or tertiary to the project
have been integrated into an Automotive
Emphasis senior design course. This section was created two years ago and has
allowed tenure automotive students an
opportunity to assist their team during their
final semester. Groups of 3 or 4 students
work as a team to plan, design and build
their project in one semester. Consistently,
the projects are aimed at increasing the testing capabilities of our automotive laboratory. Examples include a close-coupled vehicle dilution tunnel (Spring 2005) for measuring tailpipe emissions and vehicle fuel
economy on a chassis dynamometer,
upgrade to a Clayton chassis dynamometer
(Fall 2005) to enable power absorption by
both front and rear wheel drive vehicles and
a support trailer generator (15 kW Kohler)
retrofit (Fall 2004) which allows hybrid battery charging in our trailer.
Finally, specialty projects which incorporate unique expertise are incorporated into
the 'core' curriculum through the instructors
UW Hybrid Vehicle Team - Quarterly Cow
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1500 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706
4
as mini-projects. Examples include sizing a
radiator in a heat transfer course, modeling a
complicated component in a CAD course
and redesigning a lightweight alternative in
an advanced materials course.
Just like any design, there is no right or
wrong solution. Each design contains its
own nuances and allows students to excel in
their own way. So too is the incorporation
of Challenge X into curriculum. Wisconsin
has developed its technique over the last 10
years with WINNING results.
Upgrade to the Clayton Chassis Dyno