Challenge X: Developing Greener Technologies through Innovative Solutions

Mississippi State University’s team placed first overall among 17 other universities at the third annual national Challenge X competition to find innovative ways of redesigning a fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly SUV.

The university team of undergraduate and graduate students headquartered at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, was awarded the top position overall and in 10 individual categories at the nine-day competition in Milford, Mich. The challenge: to re-engineer a 2005 Chevrolet Equinox crossover sports utility vehicle using advanced propulsion technologies that increase fuel efficiencies and reduce environmental impact while retaining consumer appeal.

The competition was organized by General Motors and the U. S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, and sponsored by companies such as UGS, Michelin, Caterpillar, BP, National Science Foundation and AVL North America. Judging criteria in the competition involved more than a dozen evaluations, among them acceleration, off-road performance, greenhouse gas impact, fuel economy, emissions, and consumer acceptability. Oral presentations and technical research papers were also part of the judging.

Mississippi State University will receive a total of $31,500 in prize money, including $15,000 from the National Science Foundation for the outstanding faculty adviser, electrical and computer engineering professor Marshall Molen.

The team designed a "through-the road parallel hybrid electric" vehicle with a 1. 9L GM direct injection turbo diesel engine fueled by B20 biodiesel. The vehicle increased its fuel economy by 48 percent compared to the original design.

One thing that separated the MSU team from the other schools, was the use of Dassault Systèmes software to design, simulate and analyze components for the project. “CATIA V5 was instrumental in redesigning components to fit our needs. The FEA package Abaqus was used to simulate stresses on those components, and CATIA was used to generate code to drive our CNC machines to manufacture the parts,” said Neil Littell, PLM Coordinator for the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University. 

The competition involved more than determining a winner; it also was designed to help the United State develop more environmentally-friendly vehicles.

"Developing more energy-efficient and 'greener' automotive technologies has become a global priority," said John F. Mizroch, principal deputy assistant secretary with DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. "Students competing in Challenge X are on a quest to deliver environmentally friendly, functional and fuel efficient vehicles that consumers want to buy. "

MSU students worked many hours over the last three years on the competition, which has been continued for an additional year. In 2006, the team placed third overall in the competition, along with winning first place in several individual categories including “Best Engineering and Fabrication Workmanship”.

Others competing in Challenge X include the universities of California at Davis, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas at Austin, Tulsa, Waterloo, and Wisconsin-Madison, as well as Michigan Technological, Ohio State, Pennsylvania State, San Diego State, Texas Tech, Akron, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia universities, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

For more information about the Challenge X team at Mississippi State University and the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, please visit www.cavs.msstate.edu.

News from Engineering.com

The American Society of Engineering Educator's annual conference was held late June in Honolulu, Hawaii – an excellent location to try exotic cuisine and attempt to tame the waves on surfboards.

The events’ visionary sponsor, Dassault Systèmes, made a big splash as Philippe Forrestier brought CATIA V5 and the Dassault suite of products into the spotlight with an excellent visual presentation during the opening plenary. Many professors stopped by the booth afterwards wanting to talk more about the software that launched the new virtual Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

ENGINEERING. com was ably represented by Dave Livingstone and Stephen Slagle, with some support from John Hayes. There was also plenty of buzz surrounding the ENGINEERING. com textbook promotion, which continues through to the end of August. With every purchase of a new CATIA V5 license, professors will receive a free CATIA textbook. To take advantage of this promotion or to find out more, please contact Dave Livingstone at dlivingstone@engineering.com. 

Abaqus for CATIA V5

Abaqus for CATIA V5 brings Abaqus finite element analysis (FEA) technology into the CATIA V5 user environment, making it easier than ever to bring analysis in the classroom. Professors, if you want your students to have access to complete analysis capabilities from within the CATIA V5 user environment, then AFC is perfect for your students. For CATIA V5 users who need easy access to Abaqus technology, AFC Version 2. 5 makes advanced simulation more accessible than ever before. The result is a complete package for deploying proven FEA-based simulation throughout the design process.

AFC Version 2. 4 offers the following major advancements

• Abaqus/Explicit-based dynamic simulation enables impact and other dynamic event modeling
• Automatic contact detection
• Self-contact modeling simulates surface folding
• Submodeling targets regions of interest for detailed stress analysis
• Cyclic symmetry modeling improves analysis efficiency and reduces model size

For more information on AFC, please visit http://www.simulia.com/products/afc_v5.html.

Join us for a one-hour Webcast to learn about the latest simulation advancements coming soon in AFC Version 2. 5. For more information or to register, visit http://www.simulia.com/events/Webcast_afc25.html. SIMULIA Academics programs will give a four-month lease of AFC at no charge for the first five who sign up for the one-hour Webcast.

A New Feature on Engineering. com

ENGINEERING. com recently launched its newest site featured called Ask@ENGINEERING.com. This new feature allows members to interact with fellow engineers by posting and answering questions and puzzles. It also allows users to submit their questions and receive answers via email in addition to posting them online.

Engineers can accumulate points for asking and answering questions and for posting puzzles. ENGINEERING. com tracks and publishes a Leaderboard of top contributors to Ask@ENGINEERING.com.

To learn more about Ask@ENGINEERING.com or to give it a try, visit http://www.engineering.com/Ask/tabid/3449/Default.aspx and login.