(Tan) Solar for Full-Scale Futran

In these two weeks, I focused on building the prototype and finishing up the FEA for the solar rack. For building the prototype, I meet up with my team to fabricate the prototype and to figure out the best way to building the parts faster.  Below is the progress that I make so far on the hand-calculation drag coefficient and drag lift. These data will be implemented in ANSYS to run for the FEA in next couple days. Source: https://file.scirp.org/pdf/JFCMV_2016012909451497.pdf Wind analysis including cooling effects and lift prevention. D d = C d ⍴ V 2 2 A D l = C l ⍴ V 2 2 A Where D d is wind drag   D d , D l : drag and lift forces, C d , C l : drag and lift coefficient relatively, ⍴ is the density of air, V is velocity of wind which has V peak and V storm , and A is the reference area or cross-sectional area of the lowest point of calcul. Wind load calculation has to be calculated using the following values. ⍴ = 1.225 kg/m 3 , V could be...

This week, I still worked on the CFD and prepared for the second presentation. There were updates on meshing methods as well as the other setups, see the result below.  The drag force and lift force got improved comparing to the previous simulation; however, the drag- coefficient and lift- coefficient still do not make sense.  For the next step, I will talk to Dr.Thurlow and other people who have more experience in CFD to take a look at my setup.  After that, I will work on FEA to complete our analysis. 

In these two weeks, I was working with my team to build the solar rack. I was learning how to use the band saw to cut the C- channel. It was time-consuming; however, I was able to cut the C-channels faster. For the CFD, I was able to improve the meshing and get better with setting up the simulation. In Figure 1, the result of drag and lift coefficient, and drag and lift force were succesful calculated. This result will then be used to calculate for FEA, the stress analysis. Therefore, I will be able to test to see if either my team's design work or not. Figure 1: Results of CFD simulation to find for drag and lift coefficient, and drag and lift force In Figure 2, it shows how the velocity behaves when it hit the wall. In this case, the wall is the curved solar panel rack. When wind hits the top of the curvature wall, it generates a maximum wind speed on the top and a minimum speed at the bottom. This behavior of the wind creates a pressure difference between the top and...

In the week 7 & 8, I focused on the Bill of Materials and CFD simulation. For the Bill of Materials, I figured out what components to buy such as charge controller, converter, transformer, and batteries. Since the motor from the Bogies team needs a power of 150W and run on DC voltage, it is necessary to have a transformer that can supply an exact power of 150W to the team. The updated Bill of Materials can be seen in Figure 1 below. Figure 1: Bill of Materials for added components For the CFD simulation, I was learning how to use the software and how to set up the boundary conditions to get the most accurate result. In the video, it showed my progress on learning CFD simulation. I expect to finish in week 9, so that I can use the result such as drag coefficient, drag force, drag lift, and lift force from CFD simulation to run the FEA.