Catamaran Cover Testing/Validation Concepting

Ownership

Research

What are the requirements of our product?

Catamaran Cover: split up to two main parts; a battery box cover and electronics cover

Both parts need:

• need non conductive material on the inside

• strength

• access cover

Battery Box Cover

• possibility of adding ceramic fibre / ceramic blanket / ceramic paper on the inside to contain heat

• able to service the battery modules

  • entire area above modules must be open (able to see it ) when cover is open

  • modules will be installed by lowering them vertically into their slots

Rear Electronics cover

• during egress, this part will be climbed over by someone

  • must be strong to hold people’s weight

• current goal: separating high voltage and low voltage sections inside rear electronics enclosure

  • there will be two supports inside the cover, running along the length of the catamaran

    • (will later update on this when CAD/structural is decided)

    • current proposal for CAD – Rear Electronics Enclosure Proposed Layout

Left Side – Higher Voltage Right Side – Lower Voltage

• access cover needs

  • power supply input

  • AUX battery input

  • USB ports for phone charging

Recap of ASC Battery Enclosure Regulations

Isolation

• resistance measured between battery terminals and any portion of the solar car chassis shall be greater than the 1MΩ, for applied potential up to 500V

Mounting

• cover should be secured to the chassis to prevent the battery / modules from coming loose from events like accident / rollover

Marking

• top of each cover must be marked with letters at least 10mm high with

  • “Caution: Chemical Hazard”

  • “High Voltage”

  • type of the battery (ex. Li-ion)

  • any other standard hazard marking specific to the type of battery as well

External Cooling

• external supplementary cooling of the battery is not permitted beyond the ventilation requirements

  • unless external cooling is powered by the main battery pack and is physically contained and secured to the car (or in emergency)

Security

• a seal need to be placed that indicates contravention of the regulation

  • to prelude unauthorized access to battery / enclosure

  • provision shall be made to seal the battery / enclosure

    • if access to the seal is needed, must inform their observer

Impound Box

• required to provide impound box that fully contains the battery enclosure

  • box must have provision such that an Officer can secure with a maximum of two locks / seals

  • must be constructed that it does not contain external hardware that can be removed to access the battery box without breaking the seal

Egress Regulation

Performance Requirement

• shall define primary and secondary direction for egress

  • must be separated by at least 90 degrees and cannot be on the same side of the car

• able to exit the car unassisted

  • should take no more than 10 sec for occupant’s primary direction and 15 sec for occupant’s secondary direction

Occupant Cockpit and Opening

• must be designed so that occupants can exist unassisted

• occupant

Other things to include are: interesting research, images, links, recap of regulations, etc.

Risk/Unknowns Identification

What are the major technical risks or unknowns associated with this project?

Safety

• making sure it is safe for occupants

  • conductive

  • make sure it does not over heated

  • making sure that HV and LV is separated inside the cover

• making sure that it is able to support weight of the occupants

  • no harm to the occupants (ex. smooth surface)

  • and strong enough so that it does not effect the electronics inside

Prompts for areas of investigation include regulation risks (i.e. headlight brightness doesn’t meet regs), mechanical risks (i.e headlight melting from hight temperature), manufacturing/assembly risks (i.e how does headlight mount to aero body?)

Risk/Unknown Mitigation Concepting

What can we do to mitigate these aforementioned risks/unknowns?