Tachyon (2019)
Class | cruiser |
---|---|
Length x Width x Height | |
Weight | |
Array | |
Battery | |
Motor | NGM 150s |
Wheels | 4 |
Chassis | carbon fiber monocoque |
Tachyon is a 4-seater, pseudo-monocoque body cruiser class vehicle created by CalSol.
Design
They use ANSYS for all their FEA, with a giant safety factor in order to account for manufacturing errors.
- Composite Prep/Post is used for composites
- ANSYS Structural is used for metal parts
Apparently Composite Prep/Post allows you to specify your composite, and then you can export that and use that to do simulation. They're doing a wide range of crash deformation simulations as well.
They also use ANSYS Fluent for their CFD.
Composites
DP 460 is used as their epoxy. They plan on using crisscrossed layers of carbon fiber prepreg and aluminum honeycomb core.
All their composites are first simulated in ANSYS, and then tested in the lab at the main Berkeley campus to ensure that it matches their simulations. They use a (???) machine
They test for the following:
- something about a bend test???
- something about tensile???
- something about sheer tests???
Molds
They initially tried to use high density polyurethane tooling foam that they got sponsored by DUNA-USA, which they would then glue together and then mill in order to create the mold. They did this using Loctite construction adhesive, with a mixture of water in order to ensure that a strong bond was created.
However, they are now switching over to Styrofoam molds, due to time constraints, as their sponsor decided to push their milling work down, which would jeopardise their timelines.
They have split the car into left/right molds, and plan on using 4 separate molds.
They're planning on doing three layers of coating:
- ???
- ???
- Primer