Analysis of solar electric vehicle

and strategy for improvement of

its performance.

Autors: Sagar Malviya, Oriol Capdevila Lacasa

Directors: Dr Y.K. Bhateshvar, Dr Rajesh Solanki
Automobile and Mechanical department
Manipal University Jaipur

Paper presented in All India Seminar on Emerging Trends in Automobile Engineering

15-16 October 2016; Alwar, Rajasthan, India

Index:
1. Introduction. Objectives of the report.................................................. 3
2. Weak points of the car ......................................................................... 4
2.1. Weak points during driving ........................................................... 4
2.2. Mechanical and structural weak points ......................................... 6
2.3. Weak points in design ................................................................... 7
3. Improvements to do ............................................................................. 7
4. Conclusions ........................................................................................ 12
5. Acknowledgement ............................................................................. 12
6. Bibliography ...................................................................................... 12

1. Introduction. Objectives of the report

The main objective of the report is identify as much weak points as possible of the solar
car. Later on, this report will be used to analyse each one of this weak points and allow
the students from next team not to repeat the same mistakes and take care of them.
The car of the study was built to participate in a competition (Indo-Asian solar car race),
but its performance was not as good as it was supposed to be. The aim of the project is to
know what when went wrong during the process of designing, building or running the car
to improve its performance in a future competition.
The report also will give some ideas of possible solutions of the problems or weak points
of the car, based on the user experience of it. Those solutions are not tested or even
simulated.
This study is made by a non-expert student of electrical solar cars, who will use his
industrial engineering knowledge and six-sigma methodology to find those gaps in the
performance of the vehicle.
The vehicle which will be studied was made by a team of students from Automobile
department from Manipal University Jaipur.
Its main technical properties are:
Chasis material
Braking system
Steering
Transmission
Energy Storage
Solar panels
Motor

AISI 4130
Hydraulic line System
Knuckle & tie rod
1:4 Chain drive
65Ah, 48V, Lead Acid Battery (4x pack)
400 Watts
1 kV DC Brushless

Table 1:Vehicle Technical Specifications

Image 1 Solar Electric Vehicle

2. Weak points of the car

Weak points will be divided in different areas more global that can help in the
understanding of the problem. Also, it is possible to find one solution that solves more
than one of the problems in one specific area.
The different areas used are:

Weak points during driving.

Mechanical and structural weak points
Weak points in design

2.1.

Weak points during driving

Safety is one of the most important aspects to take care during the designing and testing
of a vehicle. Is very important that the driver feels comfortable running the car that he
can reach all the controls easily and those work as more precise as possible. Thats why
is very important to take a proper care of this specific area.
Weak points found testing the vehicle are: accelerator, break and steering wheel.
1. Accelerator is a variation of a bike gas with a spring pressed with the right foot.
Its comfortable for the driver to use it, but its not stable enough to endure for
much time. Usually the pedal takes off its subjection, and theres no possibility to
fix it instantaneously, so the driver have to stop the engine and fix the problem,
which may take a while. Also, if the pedal was giving power to the motor at the
moment it breaks, the motor stills working, and it suppose a grave failure of
security for the driver.
2. Brake in the car is activated with right foot, and its also in a comfortable place
for the driver to press it. But its not strong enough to stop the car in a reasonable
short time. The braking time and breaking distance are so big, and it can be a
trouble in case of rapid reaction for the driver.
As we can see in Image 2, Accelerator (on right) and brake (on the left) are placed one
next to other, and have to be pressed with the same foot in order to avoid accelerate and
brake at the same time, which may cause problems on the car.

Image 2: brake (left) and accelerator (right) pedals

Both, accelerator and brake, are key points in the driving and security of the driver and
people around the car, so are primary objectives to fix in next modifications of the vehicle.

3. Steering wheel isnt working as well as it should be. The tendency is to turn the
vehicle to the right, so the driver needs to hold it to go straight, which makes de
driving uncomfortable. The main reason of this weak point can be given by an
error of the mechanical structure, but it affects directly to the driving experience,
but without causing serious troubles to driver.

Image 3: steering sistem

2.2.

Mechanical and structural weak points

This area is referred to all this problems which came directly from a failure in the build
structure of the car. Maybe they were good in the design but are not working properly in
the car.
1. The structure is not strong enough, so it started bending in some key points such
as the supporting bar of the wheels, increasing too much the caster angle of the
wheels, with lots of friction losses for the vehicle.
2. Aerodynamics of the car are also an important point to note. The actual shape of
the vehicle takes care of the impact of the air on the roof of the vehicles (where
are the solar panels), but there is nothing to protect from turbulence the air facing
the driver and front wheels. All this turbulence are causing air friction losses
which can be reduced with proper solution. As we can see in Image 1 the surface
of impact of air is elevated, and increases the drag coefficient of the SEV.
3. Testing the car problems with the fixture and alignment of the chain and the motor
were noticed. A not perfect alignment causes extra forces not considered in
design. Further than this point, is important to check that every bar or piece is
perfectly shaped, without any bend part that can cause extra friction losses.

Image 4: chain system between motor and back-wheels axis

Also is important to make a good maintenance of all the pieces of the car. Nowadays, the
solar panels are not strongly attached to the main structure, fact that can cause extra
shocks and damages to pieces and structure. Also is important to maintain every required
part with oil or grass in order to find the best performance.
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2.3.

Weak points in design

This vehicle have a very important problem in the

optimisation of the design. Space and weight are
very important for a good performance, and its
essential to take care of them during the design
process.
All the space of the electrical machines such as
controller, batteries, charger and motor should be
optimized considering its weight, volume and
shape, so in that way reducing the structure will be
possible. Its shown in Image 5 that its needed a
restructuration of this part.
Another thing that needs to be redesigned are the
calculations of the total weight of the car, counting
on all the extra pieces that would affect during the
performance, such as the fire extinguisher or the
weight of the driver. Such things affect to the
gravity center of the car, and will affect to the work
necessary to move the vehicle.

Image 5: non-optimized space

3. Improvements to do
As it was explained in the weak points, the primordial change in the vehicle have to be
the accelerator and the brake. For the accelerator will be enough to insert a new support
that blocks the main piece to take off from its original support, because the structure is
strong and comfortable enough. But in the other hand, its completely necessary to design
a new pedal brake. Mechanical scheme can be maintained, but new pieces are required
such as new brake liquid. Its also needed to detail a maintenance plan to avoid future
problems on brake.
The mechanical system of the steering wheel should be modified in order to bring more
balance and more manoeuvrability. Its recommended to use the conventional rack and
pinion system, which scheme is shown in Image 6.

Image 6: Scheme of rack and pinion steering-wheel

It is very important to check all the structure is perfectly shaped, with no bends or worn
points, and be sure all the mechanics in the vehicle are as best as they can be, with precise
measures.
Aerodynamics of the car is one of the most important points to improve. Appropriate
changes on this area will give the car higher speed by same torque of the motor reducing
the force of the air impact.
The actual shape of the car present a very high Drag Coefficient (Cd) which is directly
related to the force the car have to go through. Analysing with ANSYS a similar shape in
2D of vehicle chassis we observe that Drag Coefficient will reach about 0.9 (Image 7, 8),
when nowadays acceptable values for commercial cars are around 0.3, and even
competition solar cars can reach levels around 0,1.

Image 7: simulation of air speed around 2D shape of SEV

Image 8: Cd converged result for 2D shape of SEV (Cd =0.85)

To reduce the Cd is vital to eliminate the turbulence created by the air, which can be
seen in blue in Image 7. The most important changes to apply in the car are rounding
the windshield and the trunk trying to imitate the shape of a water drop, which is the
most aerodynamic shape, as we can see in Image 9.

Image 9: optimum shape for lower Cd in 2D shape of SEV

Image 9 is captured from Hucho, W-H; Aerodynamics of road vehicles,

Other aspect that affects the aerodynamics but cant be analysed in 2D is the effect of the
wheels. If they are not protected from direct air impact, wheels create huge turbulences
at the laterals of the car, increasing considerably Drag Coefficient. So its important to
cover wheels, both from the front and the rear, trying again to copy a shape of a water
drop. Material for this covers should be rigid enough to support the air pressure but as
light as possible for not to increase the weight. A good alternative would be carbon fibre.

Adding suspension to wheels is going to increase car performance and comfort of the
driver at high speed. Actual structure without suspension is making car suffering bending
problems mostly in front wheels, while back wheels have a stronger shaft because are the
driving wheels. Is recommended to use suspension like the one showed in Image 10.

Image 10: simple suspension for direction wheels

One extra mechanical piece which will help with friction issues on motor wheels is a
differential (Image11). This piece will make driving wheels their required speed at any
time during curves without changing the torque from the motor. This may also require a
change in the position and transmission of the motor and driving axis, because as we
could see in Image 4, is not possible to insert in that conditions a new differential.

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Image 11: scheme of differential for driving wheels

Optimize the vehicle will be a good improvement for extra weight or space, and
supporting those weak parts while we can reduce the structure in some others which not
suffer that much, obviously maintaining a certain security factor that guarantees a solid
structure and the safety for the driver.
Also will be good to re-design some parts of the vehicle. Reducing material of the
structure to reduce weight and cost and recalculating the power, torque and speed on the
wheels and axes in order to insert the most optimized wheel with the perfect chain
transmission.
Finally, electronics would be a nice element to include in the car. Will bring more control
to every part of the vehicle and security above mechanical mechanisms. But costs are
elevated, and will require to change some of the actual pieces of the car, which we are not
interested in.

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4. Conclusions
This paper is made with the aim to be useful in future projects which may work with the
same vehicle to improve it, not only theoretically, but practically. Here we have an
explanation of which areas are needed to be modified and some of the steps to follow.
All the changes made will require further testing to evaluate the new performance of the
car, but they are not made to create a new commercial car but a vehicle capable to
participate and win the next Indo-Asian Solar Challenge, with a better performance
than last time.
This document is also helping the Automobile Department of Manipal University Jaipur
to get more acknowledgement from solar electric vehicles, and will give a push to work
and invest on them for future business of SEVs in India.
Finally, we can never say this document is over, because every time is needed a new
analysis and more improvements for the car in order to maintain a high quality of
performance, and keep updating, improving, controlling the car at any time. So this is
the first step.

5. Acknowledgement
This project was realised by a non-specialised student in Industrial Engineering. During
this period, the student had been learning about solar electric vehicles and how they work
generally. He studied their common parts and the utility of every one.
Further than this, the student had to understand how a specific SEV works by the theory
learned, and analyse all the functionality of the car to find those conditions, those
mechanical or electrical items who didnt work properly to present a list of suggestions
to improve all of this points and finally to reach the best performance car with this
conditions can offer.

6. Bibliography
Hucho, W-H; Aerodynamics of road vehicles

https://seritiummecanismos.wikispaces.com/Pi%C3%B1%C3%B3n+-+Cremallera
http://lalofundamentos.blogspot.in/2010_06_01_archive.html
http://slideplayer.es/slide/28189/

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