Hub motor testing

UC DENVER M.E. Sr. Design Project
Team – H2 Eco Challenger

9NEWS Team Showcase

[TV Broadcast] Students designing car to get more than 2,000 MPG

Media Coverage

Scheduled media coverage:

KUSA (NBC) – March 12th at 6:30 a.m.
KWGN (FOX) – March 18th at 7:00 a.m.

Practice Layup

Our practice run for how we will fabricate the monocoque body using a foam plug.

1. Applying the latex primer to the foam plug.

2. Prepping the plug.

3. In laying the honeycomb core between the carbon fiber layers.

4. Final result.

Mock steering model

Checking our vehicle steering setup – the red area indicates fixed components and the blue are pinned sections for rotation.

Departmental project winner!

[CU Newsroom Article] Engineering solutions for real-world problems

Team H2 Eco Challenger wins $250 departmental prize within the Mechanical Engineering discipline for the Fall 2012 College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Engineering Design Competition!

Laying up carbon fiber

Doing a mock lay-up of carbon fiber with epoxy for our hydrogen fuel cell car.

Mock-up

Checking our design concept in the physical world.  The red outline shows the original sitting position of the driver.  Doing this mock-up allowed us to tweak our design to make the vehicle less bulky, and a little more aerodynamic, by placing the driver in a more recline driving position.  It also allowed us to make a 3D model of the driver for any future design changes.

Hello World!

Faced with a growing world population, a finite amount of natural resources and global climate issues, engineers are consistently working to find more efficient solutions to transport both goods and populations.  One solution is the use of hydrogen fuel cells to replace the internal combustion engine in automobiles.  The intent of the H2 Eco Challenger team is to design and build a vehicle that runs using a hydrogen fuel cell to compete in the 2013 Shell Eco-Marathon Americas competition.

The Shell Eco-Marathon is an annual competition where students from around the world design, build and drive their creations in order to achieve the highest energy efficiency for their chosen fuel type category (e.g. hydrogen fuel cell, gasoline, battery electric, etc.).  The participants are challenged to drive a fixed number of laps around a circuit, at a set speed, to see how far they can travel on an equivalent to one liter of fuel.  The competition allows future engineers to push the boundaries of vehicle design, through innovative ideas and manufacturing processes, to promote a cleaner and more energy efficient mobile tomorrow.