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MSE Project Report

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MSE Project Report

Uploaded by

cagarwalla1
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© © All Rights Reserved
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MSE Project: Report

Solar Powered Vehicle


GROUP 5-5

ES 118 | 18th Nov, 2024


Introduction
Solar-powered vehicles are the future of the automobile industry. As the
nation's future, we, the first-year students at IIT Gandhinagar, have been assigned
to make the body of a solar-powered small vehicle using appropriate materials
available as our ES 118 Materials (MSE) project.

We, Group 5-5, have made the car's body using 3 available materials:
Polyvinyl sheet, dense foam sheet and compact birchwood ice cream sticks, each
chosen for its unique and desired properties. Its shape was inspired by the Tesla car
that was recently launched.

Materials used:
The following materials have been used to construct the body of the car.

Polyvinyl white sheets:


These sheets were procured from the
Amalthea team. They used these as letters to
write ‘SYPOSIUM’ during the Symposium
Amalthea event. On inspection, we found the
sheets extremely lightweight but non-elastic
and robust. Though their strength was not
extraordinary, it was more than enough to bear
the weight of the solar panel. It gave a very good
strength-to-mass ratio, making it the ideal
material for the car's body. Its thickness also played a vital role, as it was perfect to
make the side of the vehicle.

It was most necessary that the body could easily bear the weight of the solar panel
above it and provide a solid base for the car
roof. So, Polyvinyl sheets were chosen based
on their light weight and strength to make
the side walls of the car.

An inevitable drawback was that


polyvinyl is not easy to cut into desired
shapes by hand, and we cannot laser cut it at
the Tinkering lab. So, as it could not be

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shaped easily, the entire body could not be made of Polyvinyl and other materials
needed to be sought accordingly. Polyvinyl sheets were cut using a Hexo blade (for
the outer shape) and a pocket knife (for the windows) to make the side walls of the
car. Thicker sheets were available and more potent, but they would have
unnecessarily increased the vehicle's weight and were thus ignored.

Birchwood Ice cream sticks


These are used daily without our awareness of the
strength these sticks possess. These wooden sticks might not
have much elastic strength, and they break easily by applying
perpendicular fulcrum force, but
otherwise, they are excellent for
small-scale models. So, we used
them to make the roof of our
vehicle, as the weight of the solar
panel would be distributed along
the side walls, and the sticks themselves would be
strong enough to sustain them.

Also, the roof did not need to be thick or very heavy. A


light, thin roof was all that was required. That is why the
Polyvinyl sheets were not used in the roof, as they were
unnecessarily thick and would have increased the car's
weight. Considering all these, ice cream sticks were used
to construct the vehicle's roof, as they are lightweight, thin, and strong enough to
sustain the solar panel's weight.

Dense foam sheet


A dense foam sheet was chosen to make the front of the
vehicle. These sheets are comparatively much more
substantial than sponges and are less compressible. But
they have enough compressibility to ensure less damage
to the car if it collides. These sheets are a unique mixture
of compressibility, strength, and durability; thus, they are
ideal for making the front of the car.

This material needed to be fitted with a stick and not by fevikwik, as fevikwik’s
chemical properties burn the foam sheet. So wooden skewer sticks were used to

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attach this to the car. The Polyvinyl allows a slight penetration through a sharply
pointed skewer.

Fevikwik
Considering the strength required for the vehicle and materials, fevikwik is
the most appropriate adhesive, as it is a quick and powerful adhesive that gives
strength to the joints.

Other materials options


Some other materials were also thought about, such as:

Aluminium
Aluminium is always the foremost option when there is a need for
something lightweight and robust. We had given thought to making the car using
aluminium by metal sheet m=bending, but it would still have been heavier and
more substantial than our requirements. For this model, aluminium would have
been an unwise choice, but for a larger-scale model, aluminium could have been
the most appropriate material for the construction of the vehicle.

Cardboard
Ideally, cardboard could also be a good material for the project, but it is somewhat
not strong enough, and the model would not be durable or presentable.
Considering these, cardboard was discarded as an option. For a model with less
required strength or a low-fidelity mockup, cardboard would have been the
foremost choice

Cardboard reinforced with silicon moulding


Keeping in mind what we learned from the lecture on composites, there was an
idea where we would reinforce cardboard by pouring liquid plastic into the blank
spaces in cardboard, which, on cooling, would solidify and increase the strength of
the cardboard. But it would still have been slightly heavier than polyvinyl and
would have required much work and time. So it, too, was ignored. But it could
have been an excellent example of composites, significantly reinforcing.

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Minutes of meetings held
2nd Nov,2024

• Introductory meet.
• Discussed how to approach the project
• Setup deadlines

Started thinking about which material to use

1oth Nov,2024

• Came up with different materials and ideas


• No satisfactory idea or material
• Decided to rethink

15th Nov,2024

• Idea of Polyvinyl came up


• Decided final materials
• Decided final design and where to use which material

16th Nov,2024

• Made the model

Work distribution among the group


As we also had our EG final project submission this weekend, those whose EG
work was pending did not actively participate in the final meetings and modelling.
Initially, everyone came during the material discussion

Vansh Lata was tasked with acquiring the Polyvinyl sheet material as he had been
in the Amalthea team. Ujas, Hanook, Vansh Barfiwala, and Siddhant were involved
in modelling the vehicle. Ujas prepared the entire project report.

Though there was not active participation from each group member, the workload
of the MSE project was easily distributed between 5-6 people.

PAGE 4

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