 "Photo: Paul Wentzell")
A team of UT engineering students joined teams from several other universities from across the country Friday to test drive some of their redesigned energy efficient vehicles.
The "Ride and Drive" event Friday at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus follows a showcase of the teams' efforts last week in Challenge X, a competition to develop an energy efficient vehicle that will decrease the use of petroleum and reduce overall environmental impact.
The 17 universities were selected after teams submitted research proposals. General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy are the lead sponsors of the competition. The teams are in their third year of work toward re-engineering a Chevy Equinox SUV.
"They are using advanced technology and alternative fuels to increase fuel economy and reduce emissions," said Jenny Rios, Challenge X spokeswoman.
The government, the industry and the academic world are all working together toward creating more environmentally friendly vehicles, Rios said.
"It's been proven, and a lot more light has been shed on climate change and how CO2 emissions contribute," said Nicole Munguia a member of UT's Challenge X Team and senior engineering student. "All of us have a lot of interest in automotive design, so if we can get our hands dirty and help the environment at the same time, we feel like we're contributing to a good cause," she said.
The Challenge X teams met in Austin to test their vehicles' on-road emissions, attend technical seminars in which they were able to address some of their questions and learn more about the technology it takes to make an environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient vehicle.
The University of Wisconsin's SUV, named "Moovada," was one of the vehicles ready to test drive at Friday's event.
"Basically, we took out the gas engine and original automatic transmission, made modifications to the engine bay, put in a diesel engine, added manual transmission, modified the exhaust and put in an electric motor in the rear," said team member Matt Michalak, a sophomore nuclear engineering student at the University of Wisconsin.
The vehicle uses what is called regenerative braking, which stores and reuses energy while driving, Michalak said.
The UT team altered their vehicle "Sonic" in many ways as well.
They removed the 3.4 liter stock gasoline engine and replaced it with a 1.9 liter General Motors diesel engine, in which they run regular gas with a small amount of biodiesel. Normally, running gasoline in a diesel engine would cause knocking and rapidly destroy the engine, but the UT team is using vast quantities of exhaust gas recirculation to prevent knocking, said Ron Matthews, faculty adviser to the team and a UT mechanical engineering professor. The benefit of gasoline in a diesel engine is the fuel economy of a diesel engine with the emissions control of gasoline, he said.
"We put in a smaller engine, but because it's turbo-charged diesel, it's able to provide the power and performance needed," Matthews said. "There's more torque in our engine, which gives the driver the feeling of power," he said.
The team also added what is called a belt alternator starter, which turns off the engine when the car is not required to provide propulsion.
"When city driving, this is about 40 percent of the time," Matthews said.
The 2007 Challenge X competition will be held in June at General Motor's Milford Proving grounds outside of Detroit, Mich. For this phase of the competition, teams will be working toward making their vehicles ready to move from the design phase to the production phase, according to General Motors.
"We have made the biggest leap of all 17 schools," Matthews said.
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