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ponjavic
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I am a student in Malmö, Sweden currently preparing for the IYPT (international young physicists tournament) 2005 in Switzerland.
We are supposed to do a 10 minute presentation, solving the following problem:
Windcar
Construct a car which is propelled solely by wind energy. The car should be able to drive straight into the wind. Determine the efficiency of your car.
As I interpret this, the problem is not about constructing the most efficient car, it is rather to construct a car which has a calculatable efficiency.
We have chosen to utilize an anemnometer (wind measurer) as the engine. Mounted horisontally on a pillar above the chassis. The rotational force from this (horizontal windmill) can be converted to a vertical rotational force using, insert random english word for 'kugghjul' which i don't know here. Some kind of wheel anyway
To determine the efficency experimentally we construct a mathematical model (not including energy losses) and then compare it to the real-life results we get, we will have access to a windtunnel I think and hope.
The mathematical model without energy losses shouldn't be to hard to create I think but the goal of this project is to also include calculations for friction and air resistance to get a value as close to the experimental value as possible.
To do this we will need components that are easy to calculate. Example: it is easier to calculate friction for a uniform wheel than it is for a "spiked" wheel (which would have a better grip though) ;)
Is this a good approach? Any suggestions, criticism on the model or the interpretation of the problem? Is it doable?
Which components would be helpful for calculations? Is it possible to do calculations on the air drag or resistance?
If know of any proffessors that might help me further with this problem be sure to give me an e-mail adress.
Thanks in advance,
Aleks
We are supposed to do a 10 minute presentation, solving the following problem:
Windcar
Construct a car which is propelled solely by wind energy. The car should be able to drive straight into the wind. Determine the efficiency of your car.
As I interpret this, the problem is not about constructing the most efficient car, it is rather to construct a car which has a calculatable efficiency.
We have chosen to utilize an anemnometer (wind measurer) as the engine. Mounted horisontally on a pillar above the chassis. The rotational force from this (horizontal windmill) can be converted to a vertical rotational force using, insert random english word for 'kugghjul' which i don't know here. Some kind of wheel anyway
To determine the efficency experimentally we construct a mathematical model (not including energy losses) and then compare it to the real-life results we get, we will have access to a windtunnel I think and hope.
The mathematical model without energy losses shouldn't be to hard to create I think but the goal of this project is to also include calculations for friction and air resistance to get a value as close to the experimental value as possible.
To do this we will need components that are easy to calculate. Example: it is easier to calculate friction for a uniform wheel than it is for a "spiked" wheel (which would have a better grip though) ;)
Is this a good approach? Any suggestions, criticism on the model or the interpretation of the problem? Is it doable?
Which components would be helpful for calculations? Is it possible to do calculations on the air drag or resistance?
If know of any proffessors that might help me further with this problem be sure to give me an e-mail adress.
Thanks in advance,
Aleks