Electric Racing Team History
1994
As part of the engineering program's senior project at Grand Valley State University, a group of engineering students decided to compete in the first ever Solar Splash to be held in August of 1994. Because of the relatively short time between the beginning of senior project and race time, a canoe was used for a hull along with a modified outboard motor for propulsion. Solarex solar panels were purchased and integrated into an articulating array. For this creative design, Grand Valley won the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.) solar array award.
During testing prior to Solar Splash, a disaster nearly occurred: the boat capsized, dumping all of the batteries overboard in a local gravel pit. Fortunately, the batteries were recovered without too much difficulty and no permanent damage was done.
At Solar Splash that year, Grand Valley placed fourth in the endurance race, outpacing every other U.S. school, and completed 11.7 miles. Eighth place was achieved in the Sprint competition.
1995
To improve upon the previous year's design, a custom hull was built to replace the original boat. This hull was constructed with help from a local yacht company, Westease of Holland, and was composed of Nomex honeycomb and carbon fiber generously donated by Plascore Industries of Zeeland. Counter rotating props were implemented for improved effciency and spirits were running high going into Solar Splash '95. The craft was named the Proteus after the mythological sea deity.
Unfortunately, during qualifications, the Proteus travelled too close to a buoy and the long propeller struck the submerged buoy rope, entangling the prop shaft and stripping the drivetrain. A majority of the remaining competition was spent reconstructing the damaged boat. However, Grand Valley did receive an award for their outstanding hull design.
1996
Nineteen ninety-six resulted in great success for the Grand Valley Solar Boat Club (as it was then known) and also resulted in an additional vehicle, an electric car.
The Boat
In the past years, the team had been composed exclusively of senior engineering students. While this ensured that the team had the proper knowledge to compete, it also meant the following year would be an entirely new crew. In 1996, three underclassmen were involved with the solar boat to provide the continuity for the following year.
The major projects undertaken that year were revised endurance controls to automatically calculate the optimal operating point of the motors and batteries based upon the available solar power and calculated by a Motorola HC11. For this design, an outstanding electrical system award was given to Grand Valley. Also that year, a cradle with detachable cranes was desgined to ease launching of the Proteus. In the past, it had been a challenge to launch the boat because of its large, three foot keel protruding from the center of the craft.
At Solar Splash that year, Grand Valley placed seventh in the endurance with 12.25 miles and third in the sprint at 35.11 seconds for a combined score of second place overall! This score surpassed every other U.S. school involved, fourteen in all.
The Car
As part of a different senior project for the 1996 engineering class, an electric car was constructed to compete in Electrathon races (as the organization was then known, currently known as the National Electric Cart Association or NECA). Eagle I, as the car was christened, was composed of an aluminum frame and carbon fiber shell.
Since the race was held in late May, not much time was available for testing and the car literally was tested for the first time scant hours before the race. In competition, Eagle I finished a respectable sixth out of several dozen vehicles, and the vehicle was donated to the Grand Valley Solar Boat Club at the end of the summer.
1997
All but two of members in the Solar Boat Club graduated at the end of July in 1996 so in many respects, the team needed to be rebuilt. To that end, extensive campus outreach was undertaken to recruit new members for both the solar boat, Proteus, and now the electric car, Eagle I. Also, in order to keep sponsors interested in the team, a quarterly newsletter was starting highlighting various accomplishments.
Later that Fall, a Grand Prix style Electrathon (as the car organization was known) race was held on campus at Grand Valley State University for all the Michigan high schools who had such vehicles. Since there were no other college teams, Grand Valley also competed against the high schools.
Cars dropped out of the race left and right because of the rigorous turns and up hill portion of the track, but things were running smoothly with Grand Valley ranking in the top three. However, disaster struck when going into a corner three abreast. Grand Valley was on the outside, and Eagle I was forced into a hay bale and struck by a car from behind. Since bicycle tires are not designed for such lateral forces, most of the spokes were broken and the wheel developed a severe wobble. After pulling in for repairs, Grand Valley re-entered the race and ended up finishing sixth. Out of the more than twenty cars which started the race, less than ten finished.
During the rest of that fall semester, much debate took place about the future of the electric car. Several hundred dollars was needed to repair and improve the vehicle. Because of the limited funds and members, it was decided to focus all time and energy on the solar boat. In the Spring of 1998, Eagle I was sold to a local high school interested in joining the Electrathon competition.
Meanwhile, no senior engineering projects were being developed for the solar boat. This caused some problems. Significant improvements to the boat had been due to the required senior projects in the past. To that end, it was decided to "test and tune" the existing hull to maximize performance. This was accomplished by constructing a battery multi-plexing endurance electronics package and experimenting with numerous gear ratios and prop sizes during extensive water testing. All of this was accomplished by four people as an extra-curricular activity.
At the 1997 Solar Splash, Grand Valley received first place for their educational display, second place for their technical report, the Sportsmanship Award, and finished overall in fifth place. The scoring was extremely close with less than ten points out of a thousand separating third from fifth.
1998
Only one member was lost that year due to graduation and expectations were high heading into the 1997-98 school year. The over-riding goal was to reduce weight. To that end, every conceivable system was recondsidered and redesigned, if needed. New, lighter, more efficient and powerful solar panels were purchased from Siemens to replace the detereorating Solarex array purchased in 1994. Also, a manual, articulating array was designed to maximize solar energy. In order to better analyze the battery performance during the endurance event, a telemetry system was designed to help achieve maximum performance. The endurance battery multi-plexing circuitry was redesigned to accommodate balancing of the batteries and the sprint electronics were redesigned to incorporate two pulse width modulators operating in parallel. In order to save more weight, only two batteries were to be used in the sprint race. It was felt that since the batteries were never fully discharged at the end of one heat, the extra battery was simply excess baggage. In past years, the maximum amp draw had been around two hundred. The new system was designed to operate at 600 amps.
Hull modifications also took place to make the Proteus more hydrodynamic. The keel, which had been in the middle of the craft and extended three feet downward, was removed. Also, the entire motor mounting assembly and gear arrangement was completely reconstructed so that an inline shaft could be installed. The skipper was shifted to the stern of the boat instead of the middle. This was all done to give the hull a more "bow up" attitude. In the past, the boat tended to plough water instead of plane.
Because of all of these modifications, over two hundred pounds were removed from the sprint configuration and over one hundred pounds from the endurance. During limited water testing, the boat did indeed exhibit much more planing ability.
At Solar Splash '98, things did not go as well as envisioned. Because of the extremely limited water testing, the endurance system had never been fully tested. While the sprint qualifying went as expected, the endurance qualifications resulted in a restart because of a wiring mistake. Since the endurance qualification had to be repeated, this cost the team over fifty points. The educational display, though certainly the best ever provided by Grand Valley and incorporating numerous interactive examples of solar energy as well as a daily newsletter, received a second place ranking. The technical report placed fifth. The telemetry system was not used because of defective rental equipment. Much of the "free" time at the event was spent finishing or correcting the electronics.
In the sprint event, Grand Valley finished one second faster than the year before. While this is indeed a very small improvement, it is significant in that 1/3 less stored energy was available (by design) and the batteries were indeed completely drained after one heat. Also, the hull exhibited much better planing ability. In that sense, the design criteria had been met.
For the endurance, seven more laps were completed for a 30% improvement over the previous year. The lack of water testing prior to the event did, however, impact this performance. Overall, Grand Valley placed a respectable 8th place out of nineteen teams. Though this was much less than hoped, in many ways, the criteria for the year had been met. The overall weight was reduced significantly and performance did improve.