Design Objectives

Due to the potential impact of our project, we at Newton's First have contemplated a myriad of designs. To help us better prioritize, we utilized the pairwise comparison chart and objective tree below. The comparison chart denotes the most important aspects of our design as they relate to each other. Objectives with higher scores placed higher on our priority list than those with lower scores. The objective tree provides a hierarchical view of each objective, and what considerations had to be made to achieve that objective.

The primary goals of our project could be classified into the broader groups of cost, noise, efficiency, and drag reduction, as shown by the four major branches in the objective tree. As we considered different designs, we determined efficiency to be most important. The turbine, if it is itself inefficient, will never produce advantageous results. Accordingly, we set turbine efficiency as our top priority. This is evident in our pairwise comparison chart. Drag reduction was deemed second most important, due to its implications on overall vehicle efficiency. A high drag force would cause the car to have to spend more energy than without the turbine to move forward, and hence overcoming this obstacle was deemed second most important. Noise represents another form of energy loss, and acts as a source of particular annoyance for those living in residential areas. Accordingly, limiting the noise produced by the turbine placed it as our third most important priority. Cost was ranked as our least important goal. Battery cells, in the quantity needed to power a vehicle and produce meaningful range advantages, are extremely expensive. The cost of the turbine, therefore, was deemed negligible to the cost of the battery. While still a consideration, creating a quality product ranked well above cost.