This was a Technical
lecture given by Steven Heape, founder and director of Solar Team GB on the
aims and progress of Solar Team GB’s entry to the 2017 Bridgestone World Solar
Challenge.
The talk began with
an introduction to Solar Team GB and their aim to compete for a podium place at
the 2017 Bridgestone Solar Challenge in Australia. Solar Team GB are a team comprised of
volunteers drawn from leading UK universities and engineering companies and
also a diverse range of other backgrounds.
The team is an open team and invites interested individuals to volunteer
by contacting Steven on E: steven.heape@solarteamgreatbritain.org.uk T: 07766 302165.
The Bridgestone
Solar Challenge is a time trial for solar-electric vehicles which takes place
from Darwin in the North, to Adelaide in the South of Australia, a journey of
approximately 3000km on public roads.
Vehicles are strictly controlled by construction rules, teams are
required to demonstrate by numerical analysis and physical scrutinising, that
their vehicles exceed technical and safety requirements.
There are three
classes of vehicle each with different rules and objectives:
- Challenger class comprises state of the
art single seat all-out racing vehicles.
These are futuristic carbon composite vehicles whose purpose is to
propel a single pilot as quickly as possible to the finish.
- Cruiser class, the class that Solar Team
GB will be challenging, is a regularity trial based on efficiency. Points are awarded not only for speed
but also for the number of passengers carried per km.
- Adventure class, a non competitive
class, providing an opportunity for vehicles complying with previous
event’s regulations to enter.
Steven focussed his
talk on the cruiser class and specifically on the details of the logistics of
competing in the World Solar Challenge, the Solar Team GB car, and it’s
technologies.
Typically large
teams of between 15 and 30 people are required to support the vehicles. Significant analysis of the route topography,
weather and tactics is conducted in real time by support vehicles travelling in
convoy with the solar challengers. This
provides the competitive edge required for success. Finish times for the top vehicles are usually
within minutes of each other, quite amazing after travelling a course of over
3000km.
The vehicles are
typically of monocoque or space frame & skin construction to maximise
specific strength. They are driven by
either central or hub based motors. The
power source comprises a photovoltaic array of 6 square metres, and a battery
storage of 5kWh.
Economics have a significant effect on the design: Hub based motors, being lighter and
mechanically more simple having no power transmission components, are three
times as expensive per vehicle.
Similarly the highest efficiency GaAs photovoltaic panels are many times
the cost of silicon based cells. Solar
Team GB have opted to use moderately expensive technologies and have focussed
resources towards optimising and developing their design to maximise their
advantage and to find practical and transferable solutions. The hope is that these vehicles may help to
generate the future technologies, motors, controllers, photovoltaics,
converters, and lightweight structures that will be useful in realising
practical solar-electric vehicles that can provide a realistic alternative to
internal combustion engined vehicles.
The project timeline
was presented, design being nearly complete the team are in the process of
moving into the construction, integration and testing phases. This is an ambitious project with aggressive
time scales. The challenge takes place
between 8th and 15th October 2017 and there is a lot of
work to be done.
Solar Team GB
represents an opportunity for young British engineers to get involved with a
cutting edge project of international standing and really show what we can
do. Unlike for example the Bloodhound
SSC project where the obvious consequences of even minor failure dictate
employing the skills of very highly specialised and qualified engineers, Team Solar GB has the opportunity to engage
qualifying and recently qualified engineers in a project of significant
difficulty and international acclaim.
After a short
Q&A session the meeting finished.
Further information
is available at:
www.solarteamgreatbritain.org.uk/
www.worldsolarchallenge.org/
Robert G. Bell, March 16 2017