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An OSU Outreach Coordinator’s Fast Intro to EcoCAR

January 23, 2012 in EcoCAR 2 News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

Sarah Jadwin (left) with her OSU teammates

By Sarah Jadwin, Ohio State University Outreach Coordinator

Let me just give you a little background about myself and my past experience with advanced vehicle technologies. Oh, wait…I had none.

When I first joined the EcoCAR team last year, I had no idea what I was getting into. At my first meeting with the team leaders, the only thing they were going to teach me was exactly how the car worked. I can honestly say that a minute after they started talking, I was completely lost. I remember being so overwhelmed by all the information, and they were only teaching me the basics!  While it was a huge challenge at first to understand the different engineering aspects behind the car, I eventually got it (and I’m still working on perfecting it).

After working with the team for about four or five months, it was easy to see the differences between the business team and the engineering team. Spending time around these differences and working through them first-hand made me realize something: We had to bridge the gap. My solution to this problem was an Engineering Sciences Minor. That’s right, the girl who knew nothing about cars and rarely took science classes, just declared an engineering minor!

This winter quarter, I started my first engineering classes. For me, it has truly been an eye-opener. I have thoroughly enjoyed looking at objects, situations and even our own EcoCAR vehicle, in a different way.  While this is a field that I know very little about, I am lucky that I can have a team of 40 engineers that will help me along the way!

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Electric Vehicles: Back AND Here to Stay!

December 21, 2011 in EcoCAR 2 News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

Who says the electric car is still dead? Because according to Chris Paine, the electric car is back with a vengeance! The Ohio State University (OSU) recently held an event featuring the Revenge of the Electric Car documentary directed by Chris Paine at the Drexel Theatre in Bexley, Ohio where Chris Paine’s first electric car documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car, was screened. Only 30 people came out to see Who Killed the Electric Car, so it was a great accomplishment when the Friday night show was sold out and had over 200 attendees , including Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee!

After the movie, a panel discussion about electric vehicles was held. Speakers included Dr. Giorgio Rizzoni, director of the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research, Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, Ram Sastry, director of distribution research & technology for American Electric Power, Brandon Perkins, regional manager of Ohio Department of Transportation, and John Pohill, CEO of Venturi Motors North America. Event attendees had the chance to ask questions and get answers about the future of electric vehicles in Ohio.

In addition to the documentary and panel discussion, OSU EcoCAR 2 teamed up with the OSU Center for Automotive Research and Clean Fuels Ohio to host an Electric Vehicle Block Party and Showcase. The event brought out nearly ten vehicles and exhibitors including two Chevrolet Volts, two Tesla Roadsters, an Electric Smart Car, a Wheego LiFe, a Nissan LEAF, an Amp electric vehicle- and even the original GM EV1!

The Ohio State University Team thanks the Drexel Theatre for a fantastic weekend in celebration of electric vehicles. The team also thanks the OSU Center for Automotive Research and Clean Fuels Ohio for co-hosting a very successful event! To see more pictures from the event, visit the Ohio State University’s EcoCAR 2 Facebook page.

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A Look at the EcoCAR 2011 Outstanding Faculty Advisors

August 10, 2011 in EcoCAR News by ggguestuser | No comments

EcoCAR would like to congratulate Shawn Midlam-Mohler, The Ohio State University EcoCAR advisor and staff research engineer, and Marshall Molen, Mississippi State University EcoCAR advisor and professor of diversified technology, for recently winning awards honored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

For more than a decade, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has honored an incoming and long-term faculty advisor within the DOE Advanced Vehicle Technology Competition (AVTC) program that best promotes the AVTC goals, objectives, and activities within their university. Advisors receive a $10,000 cash prize toward their AVTC program as well as special recognition from the NSF.

The NSF recognizes the pivotal role of the faculty advisors to a team’s success. These awards recognize advisors who have successfully incorporated the EcoCAR goals, objectives and activities into their undergraduate curriculum and the benefits students receive as a result of the EcoCAR program are of special importance.

Dr. Shawn Midlam-Mohler

Dr. Midlam-Mohler, winner of the Outstanding Incoming Faculty award, exemplified his dedication to the program by continuously supporting students’ work, while still challenging them to develop solutions independently.

“Dr. Midlam-Mohler has made a difference in my personal education through his encouragement, his contagious excitement about learning, and his challenge to his students to pursue academic rigor and excellence,” said OSU Co-Team Leader Beth Bezaire.

Dr. Midlam-Mohler is a former team captain and member of the OSU FutureTruck team. While a graduate student at OSU, he became a research scientist at the Center for Automotive Research, where the AVTC team is based. From there he began to learn from advisor Dr. Georgio Rizonni, helping with the ChallengeX team and later becoming co-advisor for the EcoCAR team.

Bezaire believes Dr. Midlam-Mohler has greatly contributed to EcoCAR having been involved in the competition in the past.

“He cares about building us up into the leaders and the next generation of engineers that we have the potential to be,” she said.

Aside from working with the EcoCAR team, he supports many research activities and oversees many of the engine-related experimental programs at OSU-CAR.

Dr. Marshall Molen

Dr. Molen, winner of the Outstanding Long Term Faculty Advisor award, played an essential role in securing funding and academic support for the MSU program, working with a number of constituents to enable a high quality learning environment and strong team.

“Dr. Molen’s constant vigilance in keeping the team head toward the goals that we set for ourselves and his attention to detail has allowed the MSU EcoCAR team to excel,” said EcoCAR participant Thomas Goddette, “These qualities have influenced me to do things right the first time and to take pride in my work.”

While MSU always had a strong emphasis on research, there remained few resources for automotive research and manufacturing, despite the building of the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) in 2003. However, the following year MSU was accepted into the ChallengeX competition, led by Dr. Molen. This in turn helped to prepare the Center for similar projects.

Following this new use of the Center, the labs began to fill out with equipment, much at the request of the ChallengeX team, and helped bring MSU additional engineering research. MSU had previously enrolled engineering students with hopes of pursuing a career in areas such as aerospace, petroleum or manufacturing, but under the leadership of Dr. Molen, MSU became a frontrunner in AVTC and significantly gained the attention of incoming students.

EcoCAR is proud of the efforts of both Dr. Midlam-Mohler and Dr. Molen for providing their valuable leadership and guidance to EcoCAR students as they strive to learn, grow and prepare for their future careers.

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How dSPACE Tools Kept OSU EcoCAR on Track

July 26, 2011 in Sponsor Post, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

The Ohio State University (OSU) EcoCAR team developed an Electric Range Extending Vehicle (EREV) that employs a dedicated E85 engine. Honda donated two identical 1.8L 4-cylinder compressed natural gas (CNG) engines to the team, which the team converted to run on E85 ethanol.  E85 has a higher octane rating than gasoline and is one of the approved fuels of the EcoCAR competition. The high octane rating of E85 allows it to run in the compressed natural gas engine, which is built for higher compression ratios that allow the engine to achieve higher efficiencies than a regular gasoline engine. One engine was set up in a dynamometer test cell with the other one in the vehicle. The two identical engines allowed the team to perform development in the dynamometer test cell and in the vehicle simultaneously in order to optimize the efficiency and emissions of the vehicle. Using the OSU-designed control system, the engine reaches peak diesel like efficiencies of 40% and a peak power of 100 kW.

As part of the competition, emissions testing took place at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory (NVFEL) from March 7-14, 2011. However, a mechanical failure of the engine in the dynamometer test cell left the team without a much-needed test platform for engine tuning before emissions testing took place.  The test data was needed to calibrate engine software for testing at the EPA.

Thanks to sponsor support from dSPACE and the chosen design architecture for the OSU vehicle, the team was able to quickly set up and perform the required engine testing in the vehicle. The OSU vehicle can couple its engine to the 82-kw Remy front electric machine without connecting the front powertrain to the wheels. The dSPACE ControlDesk software provides the calibration interfaces needed to perform engine tuning tests safely in the vehicle.  The team developed an experiment for in-vehicle dynamometer testing in dSPACE’s ControlDesk that allowed the tests to be conducted in the vehicle.  ControlDesk even allowed the dynamometer tools from ETAS, Vector, and Woodward that are usually used in the dynamometer test cell to still be connected to the system, thus making the transition to the temporary in-vehicle testing seamless.

In-vehicle engine test setup designed using dSPACE tools

The OSU team was able to ship their vehicle to the EPA facility for emissions testing. The dSPACE ControlDesk dynamometer set-up allowed the team to get back on schedule and fully prepare for emissions testing at the EPA, despite the hardware setback with the dynamometer engine.  The dSPACE ControlDesk tool is one of many software tools that helped the team remain on schedule to perform well in the final competition events in June 2011. OSU did so well in Finals that the team earned a 2nd Place Overall Finish!

The Ohio State EcoCAR team would like to say thank you to dSPACE Inc. for all their help throughout the three year EcoCAR competition. The team also focused their “Sponsor Series” on dSPACE Inc., where they interviewed Santhosh Jogi, Director of Engineering at dSPACE about his experience with EcoCAR: The NeXt Challenge. You can watch the interview below!

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Looking Back at Milford: A Diary by 2nd Place Finisher OSU

June 30, 2011 in Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

The Ohio State University EcoCAR team spent the second week of June hard at work at General Motors’ proving grounds in Milford, Michigan to help their car finish Year 3 testing strong. The team worked all hours of the day, and the next week in Washington, DC they were rewarded with a second place finish out of the 16 teams in the competition. Here’s a play by play of how the week went down from the perspective of OSU EcoCAR faculty advisor Dr. Shawn Midlam-Mohler.

Day 1: Monday 6/6/11

Monday was the first day of the EcoCAR competition finals. The OSU team started on a high note by winning the Best Technical Paper award for their 20 page report covering all technical aspects of the vehicle.  It was also announced that, going into the competition, OSU had the highest point tally from pre-competition report submissions.  OSU had a few relatively minor issues to deal with from the safety tech inspection, and after some quick software modifications and some wrench work, the team was able to pass the static safety tech inspection.  The team is scheduled to begin dynamic events this morning, which will include On-Road Safety, Braking, Acceleration, and likely begin part of the three-event Emissions and Fuel Economy test.

Day 2: Tuesday 6/7/11

In day two, OSU successfully passed the On-Road Safety event (ORSE) with no major issues.  The only “problem” was that the vehicle’s charge port door made a bit of a racket during the turn maneuvers – a little duct tape and the vehicle was back in action. Immediately after ORSE, the team went through the acceleration and braking event and performed as we had expected, which should put us in the middle of the pack for that event.  (Virginia Tech had a smoking 0-60 time of 6.3 seconds…)  After the vehicle came back, the team immediately got the vehicle on a charger to get our PHEV pack up to 100% SOC so we could start the events our vehicle is truly designed to excel at – the Emissions and Energy Consumption (E&EC) event.

The E&EC event consists of three on-road drive cycles of 20, 40, and 100 miles with the 100 mile section requiring emissions measurements.  Each cycle needs to start full charged, which makes strategic charging a must.  On Tuesday, the team managed to charge up to 100%, run the 20 mile cycle, and then get charged up again for another run in the morning.  As I write this, the OSU EcoCAR is about 1/3 through the 100 mile test and looking good.

Day 3: Wednesday 6/8/11

On Day 3 the OSU EcoCAR was the first team to successfully complete the 100 mile on-road portion of the Emissions and Energy Event (E&EC) – although Penn State was a close second place.  The team started at 6:30 am (thanks to the General Motors and Argonne National Lab staff coming in early!) to avoid the anticipated near-record high temperatures predicted for today.  The vehicle ran as expected, traveling nearly 40 miles in all-electric mode before switching on the high-efficiency E85 engine for range extension.  The vehicle’s advanced emissions system was online and we expect to have excellent tailpipe emissions.

After completion of the event, the vehicle spent an hour in the air conditioned pit area before having its fuel tank weighed and being moved outside for recharge on metered stations.  In this event, all fuel energy and electrical energy put into the vehicle is carefully measured to allow an accurate assessment of the well-to-wheels energy consumption of the vehicle.  We anticipate the vehicle will complete charging by 6:00 pm this evening and we plan on rolling back into the air conditioned shop to soak until morning.  Tomorrow, in the cool of early morning, we plan on running the final portion of the E&EC event which is 40 miles of mixed city and highway driving.  This will complete the testing required for the high-point value events.

Day 4: Thursday 6/9/11

Day 4 of the EcoCAR Competition Finals was another early morning for the team  at GM’s Milford Proving grounds.  After arriving at 6 am, the team was scheduled to run the third and final leg of the 160 mile Emissions and Fuel Economy (E&EC) of the competition, which is the most critical event.  Ohio State’s vehicle completed 38 miles out of 40 without burning a single drop of fuel, after which it transitioned as planned to operate on the high-efficiency ethanol engine.  Over the 40 mile trip, the vehicle burned only a fraction of a gallon of fuel.  After returning to the pits, the vehicle had its fuel tank weighed and was moved to the charging area where it was plugged in to gain back its full electric range.  The OSU team was the first team to complete this event in its entirety.

With a full battery charge and plenty of fuel, the team successfully notched up another two events, the Dynamic Consumer Acceptability Event and AVL Drive Quality Event.  The first event measures exterior noise, interior noise, and vibration, and though the full results weren’t available, we know the team scored full points on the exterior noise portion of the event.  The second event evaluates the “smoothness” of the vehicle during acceleration and braking maneuvers.  Results weren’t available for this event either, but the team’s unique design and control system should put the team in a competitive position with other teams.

Day 5: Friday 6/10/11

In Day 5 of the EcoCAR competition, the team checked off the next to last event, which was an autocross course.  A GM driver took each team’s vehicle through the course three  times with the best time used for scoring.  OSU held the lead during the first round, but Waterloo and Mississippi State pulled off a few spectacular runs which knocked OSU down to the middle of the pack.  The team also had time to rerun the acceleration event, improving their 0-60 time from 13.99 to a still-unofficial 11.1 seconds.  This puts the team a little closer to middle of the pack, but still not within striking distance of Virginia Tech and Mississippi State which posted about 6-second 0-60 times.

Day 6: Saturday 6/11/11

This morning, OSU is on deck for the towing event.  In the afternoon, the team has both of their presentation events around the vehicle.  The first is the Vehicle Testing Complete presentation, which is given in front of a panel of expert judges from industry and government.  The purpose is to demonstrate the vehicle’s near-production status as demonstrated by testing.  OSU should have a strong case to make, as they have conducted a number of tests at OSU-CAR, the EPA facility in Ann Arbor, GM’s Desert Proving Grounds, and Transportation Research Center.  The second presentation is the Static Consumer Acceptability event, in which the students describe the customer features of their vehicle.

Following the six days of dynamic events explained above, Ohio State went on to Washington, DC where they competed in several static engineering presentations. Together they earned a total of 691 points (out of 1,000) and took home the Second Place Award, demonstrating a tremendous amount of hard work and commitment over three years! We salute the Ohio State EcoCAR team for their tremendous effort and look forward to seeing them in EcoCAR 2!

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OSU EcoCAR Goes Hollywood!

June 1, 2011 in EcoCAR News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

The Ohio State (OSU) EcoCAR team was recently approached by New York City’s Florentine Films to discuss their experience in a documentary entitled “100 Years of Chevrolet, An American Road Trip”.  The 100 year story of Chevrolet will be told by collectors, car club members, customizers, NASCAR drivers, music and TV stars, GM engineers, and designers.

Less than three days after the producers reached out to the team, a film crew showed up at the OSU Green Garage. Team members Eric Schacht, Beth Bezaire, John Kruckenberg, Katherine Bovee, and Ryan Everett along with faculty advisor Shawn Midlam-Mohler were interviewed about their experience in building a 2010 EcoCAR. They answered questions that included “how does the OSU EcoCAR compare to the Chevrolet Volt?” and “What makes OSU EcoCAR stand out from other Chevrolets?” The entire filming process lasted approximately 2 hours. The team jokes that this is their fifteen minutes of fame.

Florentine Films has not announced when or where the documentary will be released but the team and the entire EcoCAR community is extremely excited to see it!

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OSU EcoCAR Will Be Able to Use Public Charging Stations

May 25, 2011 in EcoCAR News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

The Ohio State (OSU) EcoCAR team is working to implement the SAE J1772 standard for charging electric vehicles into their vehicle.  This standard outlines the requirements electric vehicles must follow in order to be charged at public charging stations. The charge port and plug that Yazaki North America donated allowed the team to incorporate the communication required to meet the standard.

Implementing SAE J1772 allows the charge station to interact with the vehicle, turning on vehicle controllers and increasing functionality.  The vehicle touch screen now displays a battery charging screen with a state-of-charge indicator while plugged in.  In addition, the vehicle DC/DC convertor is awakened and simultaneously charges the 12V battery, eliminating the need for an external 12V charger.  Charging communication also allows the vehicle to charge on both 120V or 240V, which makes for faster charging times.

Meeting this standard is a big step for the OSU team in ensuring that their EcoCAR maintains its consumer appeal in addition to being eco-friendly!

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Hybrids, Hybrids, Hybrids at the Columbus Auto Show

May 18, 2011 in EcoCAR News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

In March the OSU EcoCAR team had the opportunity to exhibit their vehicle at the Columbus Auto Show. The team displayed their vehicle alongside several 2012 hybrids. During the three day event, members of the OSU EcoCAR team kept busy explaining to attendees how their vehicle architecture was similar to other plug-in electric vehicles displayed at the auto show. But the team did find a few minutes to film the great video below showing the sleek and fun designs of hybrids on the road today:

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Ann Arbor Trip Crucial for The Ohio State Team

May 3, 2011 in EcoCAR News, Team Posts by ggguestuser | No comments

No, we’re not talking about football, we’re talking about emissions testing! After testing their vehicle at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Vehicle and Fuel Emissions Laboratory during the Spring Workshop, The Ohio State EcoCAR team returned home with a benchmark status of how their vehicle was performing – and more work to do.

The Ohio State vehicle’s exhaust after treatment system features an electrically-heated catalyst with secondary air injection to enable the vehicle to pre-heat the catalytic converter before starting up the engine. This is beneficial for reducing cold start emissions. About 60-80% of vehicle emissions occur right after engine start-up before the catalytic converter is warmed up to its operating temperature. Pre-heating the catalytic converter eliminates the majority of these emissions. The OSU team was able to do a cold start test with and without the electrically-heated catalyst and found that the pre-heat strategy significantly improved their cold start emissions.

However, during emissions testing, data was showing unexpected oscillations in the vehicle’s exhaust gas flow rate. Upon further investigation, the team found that these dynamics were caused by the check valve between the engine exhaust manifold and the secondary air injection system. The valve is used to seal off the secondary air injection system from the rest of the exhaust system at all times except the pre-heat phase. There are two purposes for doing this: so that when the engine is running, no exhaust gas is able to backflow and damage the air injection pump, and also to prevent unexpected air to flow into the exhaust system, messing up the engine’s precisely-tuned air/fuel ratio control.

Through testing at EPA, The Ohio State team was able to identify this issue and replaced the passive check valve with an electrically-actuated valve that can be controlled on-demand by the engine controller. The team is now fine-tuning its vehicle in preparation for the competition Finals in June!

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The OSU EcoCAR Sponsor Series Presents… Donald Senich, Senior Advisor for the National Science Foundation

February 22, 2011 in Team Posts, Video Blogs by ggguest | No comments

Each month, the OSU EcoCAR Outreach Team features a sponsor interview on YouTube. At the National Science Foundation Conference in January, team members Abbey Underwood and Sarah Jadwin asked Donald Senich, senior advisor for the National Science Foundation, some questions for the Sponsor Series.

Check out the video below to see Don speak about the National Science Foundation’s sponsorship of EcoCAR and the future of hybrid vehicles. The NSF has been involved in the EcoCAR Challenge and related events for more than 15 years, and has used the competition as a window to new ideas and opportunities.

In addition to Don, the Outreach Team has been able to interview several other executives this year, including: Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, Kent Helfrich, General Motors’ executive director for electronic controls & software and executive lead for the EcoCAR competition, and Jeff Hemphill, vice president of product development for Luk, USA. To see more of these videos, visit the OSU EcoCAR YouTube page!

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