Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.
Original blade position causes the sled to dig into the sediment too steeply causing the sled to experience a large load. As a result, the new design is to add a secondary blade forward a couple feet from the back and decrease the angle at which the blades bury into the sand.
Accomplishments from Previous Week
Each member designed and built a blade brace design and a prototype of the sled and each brace was built. Test runs with the previously designed sled were performed at the beach in order to asses where optimizations can be performed.
Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.
Continue updating webpage (Jeffrey and Carl)
Individual component analysis (Everyone)
Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)
Sponsors desired a multiple deployment system, and a s a result each member designed a sled with multiple fabric deployment positions. Sponsors also wanted a prototype, which we built with different, interchangeable blade brace designs.
Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)
Instructor expressed concerns with the cables used to drag the sled and the hazard it poses to those around it. To address this issue, the team is using cables tested and verified by the sponsors to be able to withstand the load experienced by the sled. The team may also purchase a device to safely secure the cable to the sled.
Comments from Other Students in the Class (indicate date of comments and if via email or in person)
N/A
Risks and Areas of Concern
Our main area of risk still concerns the test runs with the sled. Dragging the sled through dry-run testing imposes a large load on the vehicle dragging the sled as well as the cable. Current design of the sled also leads to a large build-up of sand on the sled itself requiring more force to pull the sled.
Resources or Information Required but not Available
How much load the cable experiences while dragged through dry sand.
Schedule
Assign individual component analysis.
Get resistor values and resistors from sponsors necessary to create test fuel cells using the carbon fabric and graphite plate in order to determine the distance between each fabric required before the anodes short each other. Members will sign up for the workshops this week.
Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)
No money was spent.
Progress on Report and Webpage
Have not started report. Uploaded team's Gantt chart to website.