Solar Car Wheel

Objective:

Design a wheel to fit the Bridgestone Ecopia™ Solar Car Tire, within manufacturing constraints available to the Utah Solar Vehicle Design Team. The wheels should be lightweight, produce minimal aerodynamic drag, and strong enough for 500 lb. static normal loads and 500 lb. dynamic lateral loads. In addition, the wheel should meet SAE standards.

Description:

New Generation Motors (NGM) manufactures a custom wheel for the said solar car tires. However, due to funding limitations the Utah SVDT is unable to purchase these wheels at the set cost. Instead, a wheel was to be designed and then made using donated machining time and donated materials. In addition, for flexibility in usage, the wheel was to be designed to be compatible with the NGM solar car motor hub.

Axisymmetric finite element analysis on a simplified model was employed to evaluate the strength and rigidity of the wheel. This model was used to optimize the design for weight, while meeting strength and rigidity constraints. Below is a solid model of the final design. The wheel weighs nearly 2 pounds more than the NGM wheel, but has the advantage of a smoother profile (lower aerodynamic losses), and easier manufactuability. Nearly all features can be machined on a lathe, reducing costly CNC mill operations.