- 8,931
- The Gem State
- GTvsForza
- GTvsForza
Specs:
Base Vehicle: 1998 Chevrolet S 10
Engine: 2003 Cummins 5.9 L
Transmission: 48RH with manual valve-body
Horsepower: 1000+
Torque: 1400+ ft-lbs
Safety: 10 point roll cage, 7 point harness, door-net, 20 lb fire
Greenspeed is a student club at Boise State University with the goal of building the world’s fastest vegetable oil powered vehicle and to provide an environment where students can apply classroom knowledge and theory to a real world problem. Most importantly, however, we want to raise awareness that alternative fuels, like vegetable oil, are a viable source of energy and that using “green” fuels doesn’t mean sacrificing power. Last November we broke the existing vegetable oil speed record of 98 mph and bumped it up to 155 mph. After breaking the vegetable oil speed record, Greenspeed was invited to showcase the truck at the Washington D.C Auto Show in January 2012. This year we hope to break the petroleum-diesel based land speed record, currently set at 215 mph, with our modified 1998 Chevrolet S10 running on nothing but pure vegetable oil.
Building and racing a land speed racing vehicle running on an unconventional fuel poses some challenges that require careful monitoring and control of the engine and other vital vehicular systems. A sophisticated data-logging and monitoring system based on a cRIO real-time processor was built to allow real-time monitoring, data-logging, engine control, and most importantly to ensure safe operation of the vehicle.
As mentioned above, the entire electrical system revolves around the NI cRIO 9074, which is connected to various sensors (i.e. temperature, pressure, vibration, displacement, etc.). Most sensors are preprocessed by the FPGA and then sent over to the real-time processor for analysis.Besides logging each sensor value at a high rate, the system also allows us to analyze the vehicle's status in real time and to provide valuable feedback to the driver, enhancing safety. A more detailed explanation about the system's functionality is given below:
Sensor monitoring: Measure all sensors and compare against boundary values to determine faults and irregularities and alert the driver in such case. All sensor data is preprocessed/converted on the FPGA and then sent to the real-time processor.
Data logging: Record all sensor values every 200ms for post-processing and analysis purposes
Vibration analysis: Four vibration sensors are placed by each wheel to capture the vibrations on the vehicle’s frame. This real-time DSP application provides vital information about engine vibration, structural integrity of the frame at high speeds, and resonance frequencies of the frame.
Turbo charger controller: Controls the wastegate of the twin turbo charger system using a feedback control loop to maximize engine efficiency. This is a vital part of our project, especially since vegetable oil has only about 90-95% of the energy that diesel has. Breaking a land speed record with a fuel that is potentially less powerful than the fuel which was used to set the current petroleum-diesel based record heavily depends on maximizing efficiency. Our unique system is unlike any other turbo charger system, giving us an advantage over other contenders. This system can also be used on any diesel engine. As emission standards go up, engine manufacturers are using twin-turbo systems to attain higher efficiency. Our system can therefore offer an advantage over the typical mechanical system as if further increases efficiency and can easily adapt to different conditions. We are currently in the process of patenting our system (United States Patent Pending 61/656,971).
Ride Height and Down force calculation: When attempting to drive at speeds of 200+ mph, every vehicle will start acting like a wing, creating lift (unless airodynamic changes are performed). Since our truck is entered in the stock class, we are not allowed to make any aerodynamic modifications to increase down force, keeping the truck on the ground. Adding weight to the vehicle is the simplest solution and does not impact top speed much as the race track is 5 miles long, providing ample length for acceleration. Ride height sensors are added to measure lift, alerting the driver when a critical value is reached. After each run, the lift situation is assessed and weight added, if necessary. Down force is automatically calculated using the ride height, the weight of the truck, and the spring constant of the suspension. This information is then used to create a better and more accurate model for fluid analysis.
Embedded Web server: The embedded web server of the NI cRIO 9074 is used to broadcast sensor values/vehicle state to client computers connected through wireless LAN and WAN.
Tweeting: The system automatically tweets to Greenspeed’s Twitter page when a record is broken through the internet connection established with Cradlepoint’s COR IBR600 3G/4G wireless router.
The Greenspeed truck was built from scratch over the summer of 2011 by 5 students. National Instruments products (LabView and cRio) allowed Adrian Rothenbuhler (in 2011 he was the only electrical engineer on the team) to quickly design and build a state of the art data-logging and control system. Thanks to the flexibility and ease of use of LabView and NI's hardware, the system was quickly realized and put to use in a harsh and demanding environment. The team firmly believes that without LabView the project would not have advanced as fast as it did. This is expecially true for the turbo charger controller, which started as an idea and was implemented during our record breaking trip to the El Mirage dry lake bed in California. This idea is now fully realized and is currently being patented.
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