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Analysis Software Used to
Test Solar Car Steering and
Stability
The Toronto, Canada-based Power of One solar car was built
to set world distance records and promote the use of sustainable
energy, unlike most solar cars that are built for racing.
Most solar cars are designed only for controlled conditions on
a track, but the Power of One project’s focus is practical solar
technology that manufacturers can adapt into future mass-produced
vehicles.
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| The Power of One solar car. |
Public interest in such innovations is growing as crude oil
soared to near $70 per barrel last summer, and gas prices rose
in response. Hybrid vehicle sales are growing faster than any
other category, and the recently approved U.S. energy bill includes
tax credits for hybrid car buyers.
COSMOSWorks® design analysis software from SolidWorks
Corp. of Concord, MA, has helped perfect key systems of the revolutionary new Canadian solar car
that passed a recent round of track tests
without a single incident.
The Power of One solar car completed
a battery of speed, brake, and stability
trials last July that confirmed its
suspension and steering systems are
ready to drive on Canada’s roads as soon
as the government grants permission.
Engineers used COSMOSWorks software
to anticipate whether these systems
would stand up to real-world road conditions
— from warm and dry, to cold and
icy, at speeds up to 50 miles per hour.
Power of One engineers designed the
solar car’s front-end support arm in
SolidWorks 3D mechanical design software.
Then they ran COSMOSWorks
FEA (finite element analysis) tests on
the 3D solid models to determine how
they would perform as physical objects.
The test showed that the car’s support
arm would probably fail under the load
it had to support.
Results
The Power of One staff tried reinforcing
the arm, but it grew too heavy. They
designed a new arm that passed the FEA
test. Those results were vindicated when
the solar car drove for the first time in December
2004, then again in March 2005,
in the first test of a solar-powered car in
freezing temperatures on icy roads.
“By the time we drove the car again in
July, we had only one failure, and that
was due to a manufacturing flaw and
not the design,” said Power of One Program
Director Marcelo da Luz. “All the
modifications we based on the analysis
held up.”
“The Power of One’s work is so specialized
and advanced that they have
very little existing knowledge they can
use as a model to guide their designing,”
said Suchit Jain, vice president for analysis
products at SolidWorks. “At the same
time, the program has the same cost and
time pressures that a commercial project
would, so they need all the savings they
can get.”
More Information
For more information on COSMOSWorks
finite element analysis software, visit Solid-
Works at http://info.ims.ca/5655-325.
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