UCLA Racing Baja Car Dynamometer
The braking assembly, engine adjustment assembly, table mount, and wheel assemblies are shown.
Its alive!!!
A prototype that attempted to use the eddy current as a resistance to the engine. The necessary current was deemed too dangerous.
The braking assembly, engine adjustment assembly, table mount, and wheel assemblies are shown.
Friction Brake Dynamometer
2014 - 2015
The dynamometer was built with the goal of testing the UCLA Racing Baja car engine under different load conditions (competition events) simulated by the friction brake caliper. As the leader of a team of 3, I created the original concept and conducted the preliminary & detailed design & analyses. In addition, I completed most of the manufacturing.
The original design was an inertial chassis dynamometer, shown above, but the requirements were changed due to space constraints and the necessity of varying the load on the vehicle. An eddy current dynamometer was prototyped, but the current necessary to create the desired resistance was deemed dangerous.
As of my graduation in Spring 2015, manufacture and assembly of the dynamometer is complete. I am still working remotely with the current UCLA Racing team to integrate the sensors and test the dynamometer.
The entire assembly was modeled and analyzed with SolidWorks. I completed nearly 100 hours of manufacturing to create the dynamometer. The manufacturing breakdown by machine is:
-
Mill: 20 parts
-
Lathe: 11 parts
-
CNC Mill: 2 parts
-
Waterjet: 27 parts
​
Detailed design documents were created and include theory, feasibility analyses, detailed analyses of loads & pressures, calibration for different competition events, and a test plan. You can view this by clicking on the first image.
​
More information on UCLA Racing BAJA: