Week 10: Lockheed Martin Presentation Preparation

Our team has been preparing the presentation slides for Lockheed Martin Presentation. Also, we are in the process of finalizing our design based on solar panels that are available in our shop. The materials that will be used for the racking system would be sheet metal.

Week 9: Second Presentation and Possible Design Change

This week, the team held a presentation with one of the designs for solar panels rack. Dr. Furman provided feedback on what to improve on with our designs as well as what to consider about. The team may change the racking design after consulting with Dr. Furman on 11/1 Wednesday.

Week 8: Further Discussion on Design Iterations

This week, each member in the sub-team came up with 2 design iterations. The team is trying to focus on two design iterations created by Tan as well as a design suggested by Nicolas. First type is a shell shape, one of organic shapes, to create an aesthetic design. Paul has demonstrated how to create the shape using Solidworks during the weekly team meeting hours on October 10th Wednesday. The first one is the ideal design the team would like to build. Second iteration is design involving canary. Use cables to make holes on canary to keep the structure in place without using truss structure. Third design, which is brainstormed by Nicolas, focuses on the lightweight of the entire racking system. Wires or cables will be used in across its design, which has an arch shape. This will replace the truss structure as well as increase the ease of installation on top of the guideway.

Week 7: Design Sketch Iteration

This week, each team member of Full-scale solar team was assigned to generate two different design ideas of solar panels and its rack. The first design on the left has a half-sphere shape which requires flexible solar panels. It has space below the panels for the inverters or the batteries to be placed. The second design shows the flexible panels covering all around the rack to cover the inside of the rack as well as generate as much electricity as possible in any direction. Only downside of this could be the cost effectiveness.

On 10/4/2017 Wednesday, Dr. Du explained about the report guidelines and criteria for about an hour. This report will be due at the end of Fall 2017 Semester.

Week 6: Energy Calculation

Tan, Matthew, and myself have conducted energy calculations using the equation in the documents, 2016-06-13.BJF.EnergyCalculation.pdf and Case Study of a Solar Power Installation for an Automated Transit Network in San José.

The calculation was done using Microsoft Excel. Our calculated value was 3.51E+06 kWh or J (=3510000 kWh or J) while the value on the pdf file was 3.68E+06 kWh or J (=3680000 kWh or J). Our computed average trip time (t_s) was 4.794297 minutes which was approximately equal to value (=4.8 minutes) on the paper.

ρ (rho) value was unclear in the calculation. It was given as 1.275 kg/m^3 (air density) on page 5 of the pdf file. However, it was provided as motor efficiency on page 2 (Nomenclature) of the pdf file. Our calculation was done substituting the air density value 1.275 kg/m^3 into rho (ρ ) value.

Week 5: Presentation 1

This week, sub-teams for full scale and half scale parts of the Spartan Superway had a presentation. Each team's presentation helped our group to think more into the incorporating the rack design with overall design. I took a note on each team's presentation style, so our team could improve our presentation slides later. Mentors of Spartan Superway and its members gave the team feedback on what to improve and commented on the presentation slides. For our team, we will start working on sketching solar panels design as well as the rack system using Solidworks.

Week 4: Possible Design Change | Second Presentation Preparation

This week, our team members consulted with Dr. Furman about the design change in our solar panels rack design. We planned to orient the solar panels in different directions to unload the weight on the beams that are connected between poles. Also, the angle of solar panels have to be considered to maximize the electricity generation.

As the second presentation was being prepared, I learned that there are few additions that could be done in our solar rack design system. First of all, batteries could be placed at each station where pods will be stopping by as a departure/arrival location. They would supply electricity to pods, which makes pods to leave the departure station. Another possibility is to have batteries or capacitors attached by the solar panels throughout the entire guideways.