WHEN ARE YOU STARTING YOUR SUPERMILEAGE VENTURE ?

We believe in inspiring others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more. We believe that each dream deserves to go a long way, which is the motto that drives our team. Hence it is our responsibility to inspire and initiate many more super mileage ventures like ours. We hope that many more teams come up to take this super mileage challenge, because we sincerely believe that there is a lot of talent out there who can contribute to the future of the automobile industry and to energy efficient tomorrow.    

To those who wish to get started, the official page for shell eco marathon (http://www.shell.com/global/environment-society/ecomarathon.html) would be a good first read as it introduces the idea of the event and shows brilliant prototype designs which give an early impression about the uniqueness and the massive nature of the event.

Raikkonen and Alonso race Shell Eco-marathon cars

Knowing the event would be incomplete without reading the RULES AND REGULATIONS   (http://www.shell.com/global/environment-society/ecomarathon/for-participants/general-information/rules.html). This section gives you a complete idea of the entire event, driving rules, design limitations, and introduces the prototype and urban concepts, classes of fuel used and a complete idea of the awards and prizes in store for those who excel at the event. To have the complete understanding of the rules mentioned, we advise you guys to brush up your technical knowledge a little bit. The informative sites section on the right of the blog space should be useful. You could also learn a lot from our knowledge partner, ENGINEERING EXPLAINED, a good collection of videos that explain the working of automobile components (https://www.youtube.com/user/EngineeringExplained ).

Once your technical knowledge is brushed up, it is really important to know what you are building and which category attracts your interest. Assemble a team of really interested people, and start discussing the possibility of execution of ideas. It includes availability of budget, raw materials, time span of work, work allocation, manufacturability of the vehicle and availability of a work space. Never stop reading and try gathering as much of technical knowledge as possible, simply because it always helps. Always remember that theoretical knowledge introduces and practical knowledge widens your understanding of concepts. Hence it is okay to make errors, as mistakes help you to understand better which is probably why it is called the best teacher. One only has to keep the spirits high during such instances. You could always ask us for any help or assistance on any of the above stated and we assure to help in any possible manner.

To register your team in Shell Eco Marathon, follow the instructions given in the registration link (http://www.shell.com/global/environment-society/ecomarathon/for-participants/registration.html). Each team should have a team email id, a team manager, two drivers of which one is a reserve driver. Procedure for permission for work space and basic tools differ with universities, but in general, it would be really beneficial to have an organised workspace and tool set. Keep reading the rulebook to make sure the progress is within the boundaries of the rules stated.

We hope this post was of help to those reading. We hope to find more teams in Shell Eco Marathon 2016. Contact us for any clarification regarding any procedures. Wishing you luck for your super mileage venture.

LET’S BRING HOME THE TROPHY

Congratulations to all the teams on successfully completing the phase two registration of Shell Eco Marathon Asia, 2015. We hope all you guys are well ahead of your schedule. Here at our workshop, Perses, our latest car is in the making. You can check out our design launch video.

                                                 

As a reminder, all the important upcoming deadlines are mentioned below.

7^th November 2014:     Deadline for sending soft copies of Bill of Lading, Commercial invoice,

                                         Endorsement letter                                     

28^th December 2014:   Deadline for sending soft copies of Guarantee letter, original bill of lading

31^st December 2014:   Deadline for phase 3 registration

   

   In the life of a Shell Eco Marathon participant, this quarter of the year acts as most challenging and most interesting. It sees the majority of the work being completed, longest nights at the workshops, the best jokes of the year, missing tools and keys, the biggest mistakes and the smartest solutions, and most importantly, concepts turning into reality. Realizing the importance of a steady progress at this stage, we would like to extend our support to all the teams participating this year. In case you guys face any difficulties or require any sort of help, feel free to reach out to us or post in Shell Eco marathon-INDIA page via facebook.  We promise to do our best. We would also be immensely happy to extend our support and share our knowledge to those who wish to start a new journey in SEMA’16.

Never has an Indian team won this prestigious event. Let us try our best this year to bring the trophy to our homeland. Whatever the limitations are and however impossible it may sound, we are engineers and engineering is all about understanding ones limitations and overcoming it. This is our time, our year and our chance to prove ourselves and set standards for those who would be succeeding us. Let us make history. Remember,

“The past is an experience,

The present is an experiment,

The future, an expectation“

Let us use our experience in our experiments to achieve our expectations. Let us work together and improve together. Let us realise that irrespective of the universities we are from, we all wave the same flag.  Wishing all our fellow teams a successful SEMA’15.

Recruitment soon!

    As another week goes by, the work for the team is getting tougher. Important components and parts like our Honda GX engine have arrived. The team meetings are getting longer each day. Each department is working on improving their stand from that of the last season. But you know, as the saying goes “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”, the team is coming together at the right time.

   But for the team to continue in its venture, it must have a bright young generation to lead it forward. To take up the baton from the seniors and take it even further. We had stated in one of our earlier blogs that we wanted to inspire young minds to take up the challenge. Thus we at team eco titans are happy to let you know that we will soon be recruiting first and second years. The recruitment will be done for the management team at first and later for the technical departments. There are many talented people out there, in fact more talented and more capable than us in doing what we do. If you are an automobile enthusiast and think that you have what it takes, feel free to come out for the recruitment. The dates and other details will be announced later.

We'd like to welcome you to the Titans family

Stay tuned to this page where we will be posting updates about our car our progress and the eco marathon. For any queries please feel free to contact anyone from our team.

STEADY PROGRESS: STEERING AND BRAKE SYSTEM

The summer vacation was a time for a lot of preparation and activity for the titans as we head to the busy fall semester. As you know already, the SEMA event is from 6^th to 9^th February which means we would have to ship the car out to the Philippines by the beginning of December. Keeping that in mind, the car would be ready by the end of November. All this planning would take real hard work to implement, and all of us will be working together to achieve this goal.

  In today’s blog I would be giving you some small insights into the Steering and Brake department’s decisions and plans.

Firstly, The Steering System,

A little bit of education then as to what forms a part of the Steering System.

The Steering Wheel: The most important component. Now, as per SEMA rules, the drivers hand should never be removed from the Steering. And that means the throttle the brake levers and the shifter will be on the Steering wheel. Something similar to the paddle shifts on a Lamborghini.

                                      

Steering wheel with paddle shifts (Sample image)

The Steering Column: A device intended primarily for connecting the steering wheel to the steering mechanism.

Other parts include the Tie Rod and the Tires and we are not going deeper into that.

       The Mechanism for the Steering system that we have chosen is the Bell Crank Mechanism. What is Bell Crank Mechanism? Well basically it involves having two arms bend at 90 deg resembling a capital L. These arms can and may vary in length but mostly have the same lengths. Apart from this we would also be following Ackerman geometry as this was successfully tested in the previous year’s car.

                           

How a normal bell crank mechanism works

Now, the Brakes:

    After lots of discussion, the department has decided to provide mechanical calliper brakes of a mountain bike at the front and more powerful hydraulic brakes at the rear as more weights would act on the rear wheel and thus would need more power. And sticking to the rules of SEMA we have decided to provide brake levers for activation as this would ease the efforts of the driver.

That was from the Steering and Brakes department. Now, all this looks easy on paper but requires superior knowledge, hard work and capital to implement. There’s more to come from the other departments as well.

DESIGN IDEOLOGY OF HELIOS:THE 2015 PROTOTYPE

'HELIOS' the Sun God. The epitome of Energy. That is who we have decided to name our new prototype after. After much discussions (on both the name and the concept for the design!) these are some of our conclusions.
                  We plan to make the car chassis of foam composites. Foam can be polyurethane or aramid slabs. Honeycomb type mesh is also a very effective type of core in sandwich composites essentially used for weight reduction and providing optimum strength. Carbon fiber is also an important feature in these composites. Many types of carbon fiber weavings are available -unidirectional, plain weave, twill weave, harness satin weave with different densities of fibers (2k, 3k, etc). Deciding the type of fabric to be used is essential as it will prevent unnecessary weight addition and cost. Using unidirectional fabric layers or 4H harness Satin weave is a good option for the base of the chassis. Vibration of engine and its effects on the composite interface are to be analyzed. In the analysis, parameters like meshing, element attributes, material properties, vibration amplitudes, boundary conditions, etc are imperative to get right for reliable results.

Video Teaser of 'HELIOS

Aerodynamic study of the car is essential to reduce drag force as it increases performance of the vehicle. More time we get to analyze the prototype, the better will be the car. Tear drop structures, covered wheel rims, etc are certain features implemented to reduce drag. During analysis mesh sizing and refining, size of control volume, mesh element shape, etc. are to be set appropriately. A prototype model analysis using a wind tunnel is also a great way to determine if software analysis is in good agreement. Manufacturing the shell is also a massive task given the tools constraint. Hence, sampling is essential to come up with a simple yet precise method to get desired results. Accuracy in the mold and surface finish of the shell are key factors in manufacturing. For weight reduction, type of resin and application of the same is important. Making a carbon fiber shell and chassis requires special equipment like an oven and vacuum bagging for maximum weight reduction and strength.

Stay tuned for more on the design and the technical specs. of the prototype.

 Meanwhile feel free to visit our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/teamecotitans

JUST 0.025% OF INDIAN ENGINEERS CARE FOR THE FUTURE !!?? WE THINK INDIA CAN DO BETTER

        The highest mileage achieved at the Shell Eco Marathon Asia, 2014 is 2730 kilometers per liter in the ethanol category and 1796 kilometers per liter in the prototype gasoline category. 1796 kilometers, that is almost half the entire coastline of India, on a single liter of gasoline. For some reading this post, this achievement still exists in the realm of impossibility. Henry Ford once said,” If you think you can, or you think you can’t, you are right”. The question is, do we always think we can? Do we pause to think about the possibilities of success, before mining out any reasons that we can find to show the enormous nature of the task that lies ahead? 

          The Shell Eco Marathon challenges students from around the globe to design and build ultra-fuel efficient cars that hold the portal to the future. In 2014, the competition saw 17 teams from India, 17 teams from about 15 Universities. 500 odd students from a country that produces approximately 2 million engineers a year. 500 from a country that has more than 5 million aspirants and innovative thinkers, is merely a fraction of the whole. Barack Obama said,” Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek”. If you wish to create, create. If you have an idea, think about it. Maybe, just maybe it would revolutionize the world, and most importantly find happiness out of it, because after all, you are the master of your own actions.

           Team Eco-Titans is an initiative taken by a few students with the help of VIT University. Through constant work and dedication, we were able to achieve a few things, and more importantly learn a lot more. It is our humble request, to all our fellow students from across the country who have a passion for fuel efficient cars, to collaborate with similar people, and to start realizing your dreams, to make your dream car. We hope next year in Philippines, we see a lot more of the Indian flag, waving strong. Feel free to ask any queries related to the ultra fuel efficiency concept to our technical team in the comment box below.                                                   

Care for a Game of Darts ?

On 7^th April, VIT was visited by Honeywell, one of the world’s largest energy efficient conglomerates. As part of the visit, a team of executives from the company came to the workshop to check out all the teams, their cars and the whole working environment. All the teams arranged and organised their work spaces with banners and photographs to make them look lively.

The Honeywell execs, accompanied by the VC, Pro VC and the Dean of SMBS, came at around 2:30 pm and went through all the work spaces asking about the respective cars. The entire Titans team was present to meet them. We talked to them about our car, explaining the super-mileage concept and our aim to achieve a mileage of 1500 kmpl for the 2015 prototype. The visitors found our concept very interesting especially the Dean who inquired a lot.

A minor addition that proved to be very useful on the day was the dart board purchased by our team. We planned to place the dart board in the workshop as a stress reliever. The team mates can throw a few darts and let of some steam, while working on the car.

Archit having a go at the dartboard

On the day of the visit, the dart board proved to be a major source of attraction as well as enjoyment as the entire team got together and played. Even members of other teams were interested and some came to play as well. It was a great way of bonding for the whole team while we waited for the executives.

 In fact, if you are interested you could check out the b block workshop and play a few rounds at the Titans workshop and also gain a handful about the car.

The team with the Honeywell execs and the 2010 prototype