When he first started college he didn’t know exactly what to pursue but he was interested in the engineering aspect of automobiles. So he decided to study computer engineering, which led him into designing automotive controls and eventually into a national vehicle design competition.
Young, a graduate student in electrical engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU), finally received the opportunity to put his childhood aspirations into practice when he joined the MSU Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS). CAVS is an interdisciplinary center that allows engineering, research, development and technology transfer teams to focus on complex problems, such as those encountered in the technologies designed to improve human mobility.
At CAVS Young, with his background in computer engineering, learned the fundamentals of automotive controls and would later apply that valuable knowledge by participating in the 2007 Challenge X: Crossover to Sustainable Mobility event that was held at the General Motors Corp. (GM) proving grounds in Milford, Mich., May 30-June 7.
MSU placed first out of 17 schools that participated in the four-year competition that started in 2005 and ends in 2008. The teams were challenged to reengineer a GM-donated 2005 Chevrolet Equinox. The goal was to maximize the vehicle’s fuel economy, and reduce emissions and greenhouse gases (GHGs) while maintaining or exceeding the vehicle’s stock utility and performance. Co-sponsored by the U.S. DOE and GM along with several others, the groundbreaking national event just completed its third year. The sponsors supplied cutting-edge technology and support, including software and hardware components. The first year of the program focused on vehicle simulation, modeling, and subsystem development and testing. In 2006 and 2007, students were able to physically integrate their advanced powertrains and subsystems into the Equinox where they were judged on various categories which were calculated into a point system.
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According to Micky Bly, director of engineering for GM hybrid vehicles and co-executive lead for Challenge X, each team followed a modified version of the GM Global Vehicle Development Process (GVDP) to guide their design and development activities in order to complement the engineering goals of Challenge X. “We gave the students a lot of latitude on what they could do and we also overlaid the competition right on top of GM’s GVDP, so we tried to introduce the students to the reality of what it is to design, develop and really almost manufacture a vehicle,” Bly says.
In addition to MSU, the other teams participating in the challenge are Michigan Technological University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, San Diego State University, Texas Tech University, the University of Akron (Ohio), the University of California, Davis, the University of Michigan, the University of Tennessee, the University of Texas, Austin, the University of Tulsa, the University of Waterloo in Canada, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University. MSU tallied 895.5 points out of a 1,000 total points while the runner-up University of Wisconsin, wasn’t far behind with 888.3 points. Virginia Tech came in third while Ohio State and Penn State finished fourth and fifth respectively, rounding out the top five.
“The biggest thing I think [the students] get out of it is that they’re really given a platform of technologies and support that’s pretty much unparalleled,” says Forrest Jehlik, Challenge X lead technical coordinator and research engineer for the Advanced Powertrain Research Facility at Argonne National Laboratory which is a competition sponsor. Jehlik, a veteran competitor, took part in the 1997 Propane Vehicle Challenge and the 1998 Ethanol Vehicle Challenge. He was team captain both years for the University of California, Riverside. “They go through a whole series of disciplines to achieve the ultimate goal of putting this vehicle together, and they learned an amazing amount,” Jehlik says. “It’s just tremendous.”
Under the Hood
The teams employed many novel ideas into their designs and technologies that could lead to solutions to reduce well-to-wheel energy consumption, petroleum consumption and tailpipe and GHG emissions, and increase pump-to-wheel fuel economy. All the teams selected hybrid vehicle designs some of which go beyond those being considered by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The designs span the scope of parallel through-the-road designs and other hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) series configurations. A parallel through-the-road design is where the biodiesel engine powers the front wheels while the hybrid electric motor powers the back wheels. The electric motor is only used during acceleration periods, and regenerative braking recaptures energy for the electric motor.
During the competition, teams were judged on 19 categories and could earn 1,000 points. The categories ranged from vehicle-handling dynamics to technical presentations where they explain the methodologies they used. The static consumer acceptability event at 90 points, accounted for the most points. “That was probably the one event that put us over the top,” Young says. “That was the highest weighted event during the competition.”
Twelve of the 17 teams used B20 in their tanks. Three used E85, one used reformulated gasoline and one team used pure hydrogen. “The purpose of the Challenge X competition is to really look at some of the advanced propulsion technologies that can increase fuel efficiency and reduce environmental impact while retaining customer appeal,” says Brendan Prebo, manager of OEM outreach education for the National Biodiesel Board (NBB). “If you look at those three things all of those are attributes that biodiesel has.”
The MSU team, which took third place in last year’s competition, designed a through-the-road parallel electric hybrid Equinox that runs on a 1.9-liter GM direct-injection turbo diesel engine fueled by B20. For the hybrid motor, the team installed a 330-volt Johnson Controls nickel metal hydride battery along with a 45-kilowatt Ballard integrated power transaxle (IPT).
The vehicle achieved a 48 percent increase in fuel economy over the production stock version while attaining a 32 percent reduction in GHG emissions. “All we did was downsize the engine to get better efficiency during a steady driving state and then we supplemented that with an electric drive, which has high efficiencies and very high torques at low speeds and they just complement each other well,” says Dave Oglesby, MSU Challenge X team leader and mechanical engineering graduate student. “As a result, you get a vehicle that performs really well. The acceleration and passing capability are really competitive with gas or conventional vehicles, and you have a small engine to propel it down the road in an efficient manner, so you get the best of both worlds.”
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