The Basic Utility Vehicle

SAE Baja Car “White Lightning”

Wind Tunnel Data Acquisition System

Micro-cooling system

The Basic Utility Vehicle

Students: Joshua Batterson, Rob Miles, Tim Heiman, Jon Edwards, Evan Brill, Nick Huffman, Dave Harner

Our mission with the design of this B.U.V. is to help and improve the standard of living in 3rd world countries by having a vehicle concept that can be assembled just about anywhere by just about anyone.

This years team placed fifth overall after having some troubles with their handlebar mount. More information and contest rules can be found at: www.drivebuv.org.

          

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SAE Baja Car “White Lightning”

Students: Scott Eis, Jared Meyers, Jeremy Odell, Justin Sturgeon

The Mini Baja Competition is the design and production of a prototyped, rugged, off-road recreational vehicle. The design is regulated by a large document from SAE containing rules and safety policies to follow. These are only guidelines for a fair and safe competition; they still leave substantial room for creative and unique solutions for the design and fabrication of each individual vehicle. For more information, please visit the SAE Minibaja website at: students.sae.org/competitions/minibaja/midwest

Tri-State has used the SAE Mini Baja competition as a senior design project for mechanical engineering students. Teams of students are required to design the complete vehicle, including suspension, frame, brakes, steering, and power train. Complete reports including 3-D modeling, Finite Element Analysis, and presentations are also required to complete the senior design project. After the final design has been chosen, the team must then construct the vehicle for use in the national competition.

 

     

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Wind Tunnel Data Acquisition System

Students: Robert Nagel, Andrew Rekeweg, William Walk

The wind tunnel data acquisition system will employ a strain gauge balance to measure lift, drag, and side-to-side forces along with the moment around each force’s respective axis. The forces and moments will be read as voltage changes across Wheatstone bridges composed of strain gauges within the sting balance. These voltage changes will be interpreted by the data acquisition software, correlated to equations of known force curves (which we will create), and then displayed for the wind tunnel operator. The design will be implemented in the Tri-State University subsonic wind tunnel.

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Micro-cooling system

Students: Mike Wood, Casey Slone, Josh Kidder, Jon Brock, Jon Williams

The goal of the micro-cooling project was to design and build a practical liquid cooling system that dissipates heat from an electronic component at a rate of 1000 W/cm² using microchannels. The heat from the electronic component is drawn up through the heat sink.  Liquid is pumped through the heat sink and removes the heat from the surface. The liquid is then pumped to a heat exchanger which removes the heat from the liquid to the air. This process is similar to the way a radiator cools an automobile. The cooled liquid is then pumped back to the heat sink and the process repeats. 

This project is part of the 21^st Century Project: MEMS-Based Microscale Electronics Cooling System. Purdue University and Delphi Delco Electronics Systems have been actively involved by providing us with knowledge and suggestions from research and past experience throughout this project.

     

Initial Heat Sink                                                     Optimized Heat Sink

Current Test Stand

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