European champion Shell Eco-Marathon 2010

There are two categories vehicles: urban concept and prototype. Our school participated for the third time in the category urban concept with Sharky 2.X. Urban Concept vehicles are vehicles which most resemble today's cars. This means that the car must meet many design rules, such as 4 wheels, minimum width tires, direction lights, brake and head lights, upright chair, accelerator and brake pedal, etc.

The eco marathon was held at the German race track: Euro Speedway Lausitz from May 3 to 7. The final race was on Friday, May 7, where we passed the German team at the last moment (they set a distance of 701 km). In total, around 200 teams (2500 students) participated with the Shell Eco-marathon Europe.

There is a fixed distance driven during the race, 7 rounds at the track with a maximum duration of 53 minutes. This represents an average speed of 25 km/h. With a flow meter is then determined how many fuel (hydrogen in our case) is consumed. The km/l ratio can be calculated with this number and the distance.

Photos of the awards ceremony in Germany:

My role within our group was to optimize the primary electrical system. This includes the fuel cell, capacitor bank, motor + controller, throttle control, and all other key electronics essential to driving. By optimizing all consumers and wiring and switch contacts I have saved a total of approximately 36.5 watts continuous. With an average motor consumption of 300Watt this is a saving of over 10%.

The first year Sharky drove 848 km/l in the eco-marathon, but because Shell finds it necessary to constantly change the rules these results are not comparable. Now we had to lug around an extra 10 kg of additional adjustments and 20 kg driver, also the number of stops was increased from 3 to 7 times. When you compare this data, then we definitely drove better than in the previous years. 

The official video of Shell:

The specifications of our vehicle:

Name:
Sharky 2.6

Race class:
UrbanConcept

Fuel:
Hydrogen (Air Products)

Dimensions:
3,20m (L) x 1,30m (B) x 1,30m (H)

Weight:
109 kg + 70 kg driver

Frame:
Perforated aluminum space frame for weight reduction

Body type:
Aerodynamic design
Air drag coefficient: 0.18 with a frontal area <1 m2
Carbon Fiber Body: 0.55 mm (Radius & Design Brands)
Reinforced by a sandwich construction

Rims:
Self Developed carbon fiber rims 16 inch

Tires:
4 pcs, Eco-Michelin tires 95-80-16 at 6 bar for minimum rolling resistance

Fuel cell:
Ballard Nexa Power Module (1200W), tuned by fuel engineer Maudy Mulder
Hydrogen supplied by Air Products

Electric motor:
Brushless DC servo motor with intelligent motor Controller
Designed and delivered by Groschopp BV
Efficiency: 80%, power: 420W.

Speed:
30 km/h on average, 37 max.

Telemetry:
Data Logging with wireless data transfer (AVE-nl)
Data realtime readable on laptops in the pits.

Photos before and during the race:

Pictures of the camp, journey and paddock: