SAE building supermileage
LOUIS ROBINSON
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It is a car that gets insane
gas mileage ranging from
200 to as high as 3000 miles
per gallon. That is a super
mileage car.
The Society of Automotive
Engineers (SAE) holds an in
ternational competition every
year to see what school can
build the best supermileage
car.
Now, you're not going to
see these cars driving out on
the road. Schools from across
the country meet in Mar
shall, MI, at the Eaton Prov
ing Grounds to compare gas
mileage.
What defines these cars
is not only their gas mileage.
Most cars are relatively
small weigh
ing in be-
tween
80-150
4 44
rinner of the 2009 - 2010 Most Creative Program Award
pounds, and they are not very
big in length or width.
The SAE provides every
competitor with a Briggs &
Stratton single-cylinder four
cycle engine that the teams
can modify however they
choose.
There are really no oth
er big regulations besides
the car must have at least 3
wheels and the driver must
face forwards.
The competition consists
of 4 different parts. First, the
car must pass the technical
inspection before it can even
do a run.
The technical inspection
is just a test to make sure the
car meets the required crite
ria and is safe enough to take
a lap around the track.
If the team fails the
inspection
then
Artificial sniff research keen as canine
Canines have one of the
best senses of smell of all liv
ing creatures.
They have been used by
police for years to help sniff
out drugs, bombs, other peo
ple, butts and so on.
The canine nose can sniff
out odors up to concentra
tions of parts per trillion level.
However, to train a dog to
sniff out such stuff is time
consuming and can be expen
sive. Not to mention some
of the environments are too
dangerous of situations to put
dogs in anyway.
Have you ever wondered
if humans will ever be able to
smell the range of odors that
canines do? Well, so did
a few researchers at Penn
State.
Mechanical Engineering club visits LORD
LORD Corporation has
facilities here in Erie, Sae
gertown, and around the
world in Germany, Japan, and
Brazil. Yet the plants located
in Erie are special.
It was here in Erie where it
all began in 1924 Hugh Lord
and six employees, made up
the newly founded LORD
Manufacturing Company.
In 1927, General Electric
became LORD's first cus
tomer by purchasing LORD
mounts for their trolley cars.
From 1924 to the present,
LORD has continued to ex-
SCHOOL PAGES OF THE BEHREND BEACON
LOUIS ROBINSON
enpneenng vlitcv
CHRIS HENLEY
engineering writer
they have until the competi
tion ends to pass it before
they can take the car for a
run.
After the inspection test is
passed, the car can then take
runs in the competition for
best gas mileage. Each team
gets as many runs as they can
do in one day (usually up to
eight) to try and get the best
gas mileage.
The track is an oval track
with banked turns on the
ends. The car must make it
around the 1.6 mile track 6
times for a run. The car must
also maintain an average
speed of 15 mph or it will get
penalized.
Along with the runs, each
team must also hand in a writ
ten design report and give an
oral report. The oral report is
100 points of the competition.
The written report is another
300
The supermileage car that the SAE made for last year's competition
So much so, that a re
search development team got
together to attempt to build a
mechanical nose that closely
resembles one of a dogs'.
Eric Patterson, a senior
research associate at Penn
State's applied research lab
and an associate professor of
mechanical engineering, de
cided to study the dog's sense
of smell more in depth.
He looked at the funda
mental fluid mechanics and
odorant transport of canines
that gives them this strong
sense of smell.
"When a dog sniffs, odor
ant-laden air passes through
the nasal vestibule and then
through a labyrinth of exqui
site complexity," said Patter
son.
"This is nature's solution to
packing a large surface area
in a small volume-crucial for
pand and create new prod
ucts like those seen in the
new OBS building.
The new state-of-the-art
chemistry labs were made
possible by the donation Beh
rend received from LORD
Corporation this past sum
mer.
Of course, this is not the
only role LORD plays with
in Behrend. Behrend is one
of the top 50 engineering
schools in the nation and
LORD is right in Behrend's
back yard.
Every year, new graduates
being poured out of this cam
pus into the job market and
some of them have degrees in
car
Then the rest of the points is
the best mpg number. Which
ever team has the most points
in the end will be crowned
best supermileage car of the
competition.
Colleges from all over the
world take their cars into the
competition to compete. So
of course, Penn State Erie has
an SAE club that participates
yearly.
Taylor Pearson, and the
secretary John Pearson ear
lier this week to find out what
defined Behrend's car from
everyone else's. "Last year
was the best that Behrend
has ever done, with a fuel
mileage of 777 mpg, breaking
the old record of 630 mpg."
Last year, the club tried to
finish a new carbon fiber car,
but they ran out of time and
had to use the old car. How
ever, after a year of designing
it, they finally are progress
ing towards their new design.
This year their car is going
to be made completely of car
bon fiber with a frame made
of house insulation wrapped
in carbon fiber.
As opposed to their 170
pound fiber glass car they
had last year, this car is go
ing to be about 80-90 lbs
This is going
delivering odors to millions of
olfactory receptors."
Brent Craven, an ARL
research associate, helped
Patterson out by creating a
computational fluid dynamics
model based on the equations
of fluid motion and high-res
olution magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) of an actual
dog's airway.
"One key finding," Patter
son said, "was the explana
tion of how odors were trans
ported to the olfactory region
within the nasal cavity, the air
flow over the mucous-coat
ed receptors is remarkably
smooth, which maximizes ef
ficient transport of odorants
to the receptors."
As a result of Craven's
and Patterson's work, a team
was chosen this past summer
to participate in Real Nose,
a multi-institutional project
"Will what I learn in
the classroom or
lab really going to
be applicable to my
future career?"
-MATTEW ADAMS
PRESIDENT MECHANICAL ENGI
NEERING CLUB
engineering, chemistry, and
physics.
Logically LORD appears
as a potential job opportunity
for these new graduates. Not
only do they offer employ
ment opportunities to Beh-
to make a big difference in
gas mileage because weight
of the vehicle is a big factor
in determining the gas mile
age of the car.
Another change they made
to improve weight is the type
of starter motor and battery
they are going to use.
They are switching from
the 12 pound stock starter
motor and lead acid battery
they used last year, to a two
pound model airplane motor
and lithium battery for this
year.
One modification they will
have this year is a computer
to install in the car. It is go
ing to show the speed of the
car and
au-
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Photo Provided by Taylor Pearson
sponsored by the Defense
Advanced Research Projects
Agency (DARPA) whose ob
jective is to build a mechani
cal nose that very closely sim
ulates that of a dog.
DARPA planned out four
main elements of the research
project that the team will fol
low.
The first phase involves
developing an odorant-intake
system that incorporates the
earlier air flow and odorant
transport that the human
nose does not exhibit.
The second phase involves
developing an odorant detec
tion system that incorporates
canine olfactory receptors
that will be engineered from
actual canine cells.
Patterson expects this to
be the most challenging part
of the project.
"Work needs to be done
rend graduates, they offer
internships as well in which
Behrend students readily par
ticipate.
Recently, Matthew Adams,
a student and President of
the Mechanical Engineering
Club, toured the engineer
ing lab at LORD's Grandview
Boulevard facility.
At this location, they devel
op and test components used
in aircraft applications. While
on the tour, Adams says they
were able to see their various
testing rigs in action.
According to Adams, what
is being taught in the class
room is valuable in an actual
career setting.
meerm
Above is last years team that
went to Michigan to showcase
their supermileage car.
tomatically shut the car down
when it reaches the max
speed to let the car just coast
until it needs more speed.
They are also program
ming the computer to calcu
late the drag force being ex
erted on the car so they can
test how aerodynamic it is.
The computer screen is
just a basic PSP screen to dis
play the speed and other criti
cal numbers.
The four main factors in
determining the gas mileage
is the weight of the vehicle,
the efficiency of the engine,
the rolling resistance of the
tires, and the air drag force
exerted.
the car to be up and running
by December and invite any
one of any year or major to
come join them every Friday
night at 6:30 to contribute to
the making of the car.
The SAE will be leaving
for Michigan in June for the
competition.
to identify the receptors that
respond to individual chemi
cals" Patterson explains, "and
then these receptors must be
expressed in sufficient num
bers to be used in an actual
sensor."
The project is a typical
DARPA hard project with
high risk and high payoff.
It is going to take a lot of
time and effort but results in
the end could be optimal.
It would be able to sniff out
drugs, explosives, chemical
and biological weapons, and
even certain types of cancer.
"This is the realm of dis
covery and unsolved prob
lems," Craven said, "plus
there are practical applica
tions that could positively im
pact all of our lives."
On top of viewing test rigs,
Adams, and the other stu
dents touring the engineer
ing lab, received a presenta
tion pertaining to what LORD
does and various concepts
that they have learned and
how they use them for real
applications.
As a company that contin
ues to expand and develop
new products, LORD Corpo
ration strives for continuing
to be a worldwide leader in its
two core businesses, mechan
ical and chemical products.
If you're curious to find out
more of what LORD does visit
their website at www lord.
corn.
The SAE club is working
their hardest to minimize
all of these and is aiming
for a gas mileage of 1500,
almost double of their car
last year.
Taylor and John aim for