Blog 6

 

Progress from February 4 - February 17th

From February 4th through February 17th the team has worked on acquiring the material for the machinist, providing final engineering drawings for the machinist to fabricate, and has begun prototype testing for the validation. The team received the first order of the materials on February 4th and the second order on February 8th. The team also finalized the engineering drawing for the machinist on February 9th and sent in the drawings on February 14th. The team expects to receive the uprights from the machinist in an estimated time frame of March 8th. To begin and get a head start on the validation plan, Dr. Agrawal suggested the team utilize old uprights from the previous competition year and test our validation setup. The team decided on using the uprights from the 2018 competition year and began testing the validation setup on February 14th. The team has tried two setups for securing the upright in a fixed position for the force application and deflection measurement. The team plans to use a welding stand to secure the control arms together and then attach the upright to the control arms. This setup will resemble vehicle fix conditions the most and allow for an easy application of force using the hydraulic jack. For the team-designed uprights the setup will be different, instead, the team has created a design to attach the uprights to the welding table. Refer to figures 1 and 2 that showcase the cad of the setup. The force will be calculated by multiplying the pressure reading on the gauge by the effective piston area.

Future Plans to Achieve Major Milestones

For near-term work, the team is focusing on the completion of the fabrication of the front and rear uprights. The team has already completed tasks 1 and 2 in Milestone 4 which has allowed for the machinist to start the fabrication of the uprights. Task 1 required the team to obtain the materials which took about 2 weeks to be delivered to the team leads home. The second task included the team finalizing the engineering designs that would be given to the machinist. Now the team is focusing on the completion of Task 3 and Task 4 which will then lead to Milestone 4 being 80% completed. Task 3 includes verifying the final machined product and verifying that it fits the standards of FSAE and that it can be integrated into the UH FSAE team’s car. This task heavily relies on the uprights being machined and therefore the team is waiting for the products to be received in the beginning of March. Task 4 is the completion of the validation testing, which includes a load test, and camber test. This task also requires the team to have the physically finished uprights but the team has been taking steps in the completion of this task by starting the setup for the validation and setting up with older uprights models. This will ensure that once the final design is received the team can swap out the older model and redo the validation testing. 

Foreseen Obstacles and Possible Solutions 

Obstacles that the team is anticipating is not receiving the machined uprights on time to begin the validation with the set schedule for the team's Gantt chart. Our solution to this has been to start the validation testing with the old uprights as soon as possible. In case of a manufacturing delay, the team will not lose as much time because work has been done in advance. Another obstacle the team could face is the testing rig with the control arms not being a suitable setup. The team has alternative setups that are more reliable but stray further from real life car conditions. The team has considered the advantages and disadvantages of different setup and is ready to compensate for the lack of the other.

Current Status and Progress Pictures 

Figure 1 : Cad of Rear Upright Validation Set Up 

Figure 2: Cad of Front Upright Validation Set Up

Figure 3: Hydraulic Jack for Validation 

Figure 4: Received Aluminum Material