World Solar Challenge

In 1982, solar pioneer Hans Tholstrup embarked on a quest that would see him drive a home-built solar car Quiet Achiever across Australia from west to east. Inspired by this achievement and his own pioneering vision he urged others to explore the boundaries of sun-powered transport.

 And so the World Solar Challenge was born. (http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org)

Inaugurated in 1987, the World Solar Challenge continues to showcase the development of advanced automotive technology and promote alternatives to conventional vehicle engines.

Today, while solar cars test the ultimate boundaries of energy efficiency, they also provide incredible insights into the capabilities of everyday vehicle technology. These innovations are at the heart of all electric cars, whether that power comes from hydrogen fuel cells, hybrid engines or even fully-electric commuter cars that draw power from solar cells on the garage roof – they all use the technology that is continually honed to perfection in the World Solar Challenge.

Utilising no more than six square metres of solar panels, some of the world’s brightest young minds are on track to develop the most efficient electric vehicles possible. And every two years, teams from leading international universities and technical institutes, together with private entrepreneurs, come together Down Under to test and promote the ultimate synergy of nature, motion and innovation.

This year’s race begins on the 6th to the 13th October 2013 with nearly 50 teams competing in the 3000 km trans-Australia World Solar Challenge for solar powered vehicles.

Cambridge University Eco Racing Team

Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) team will once again be entering this fantastic competition. Over the course of the past year a team of students at Cambridge University has designed, developed, manufactured and tested their car from scratch.

Dassault Systèmes has been supporting and sponsoring the CUER team by providing them with software licenses from CATIA and Solidworks for the design of the car and from SIMULIA for the simulation and qualification. 

In June 2013, CUER launched the car ‘RESOLUTION’ to the world.

The vehicle was designed to be as aerodynamic as possible with a classic ‘teardrop’ profile to fit around the design constraints which were placed on the entries for each vehicle class. The innovative approach taken by the CUER team was to place the solar panels inside the vehicle to prevent them from getting coated with dust – and also to place the panels on a pivot which will allow them to ‘follow’ the sun as it moves across the Australian desert sky.

 RESOLUTION – in action (click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAXeNf9L0cs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUdLAEG5j8OM1cb-QiRasYeQ  to watch the youtube video)

Clint Davies Taylor, our SIMULIA Senior Sales Manager for EMEA Academia visited Cambridge University at the start of the analysis process to provide suggestions and a bit of support for the team doing the analyses. The chassis is a composite honeycomb construction so Abaqus was ideal for the design qualification. Each vehicle is required to withstand a 5g head on and a 5g side impact as well as a head on crash at 10 m/s to a rigid wall. The performance of the vehicle under the 10 m/s impact test was improved by a factor of 2 using Abaqus – whilst only increasing the car’s weight by 150 grams.

Preliminary testing was done over the weekend of the 6th/7th July and with the exception of a small electrical fault the team was very pleased with the performance of RESOLUTION and seem to be quietly confident of achieving a good result in October.

We will keep you posted on the team as they make their journey from Darwin to Adelaide!

In the meantime, please join me in wishing the CUER team every success in October!