Supervisor
Dr. Bert Bras
Description
During my time taking Georgia Tech's Undergraduate Capstone Project course , my team worked with General Motors to develop the first hybrid automotive electric motor disengagement system.
Hybrid electric vehicles charge their batteries using the internal combustion engine's (ICE) alternator and through regenerative braking. However, if the battery has a complete charge or too much electricity is being generated at once, the battery can become overcharged. This leads to the battery undergoing overheating, performance loss, reduced lifespans, and even exploding. To avoid this issue, a common solution is to run excess electricity through large resistors and allow the energy to release as heat.
An alternative solution my team innovated is using an disengagement system to create separation between the ICE motor generating charge and the battery. This allows for excess energy to be blocked from reaching the battery when the battery management system deems it so.
The mechanism utilized is a dog clutch , a common engineering clutch often implemented in motorcycles and other contraptions. Our report calculations approximate this mechanism to have a factor of safety of 2.28 at the weakest points (the outer dog clutch plate). Feel free to read more in our report!
Shout out to my Capstone team (Matilda and Big Goose), consisting of Vinh Dong , Rebecca Hammerle , Matthias Heyrman , Keith Johnson , Preston Pegram , and myself. I couldn't have asked for a better Capstone group to end my time at Georgia Tech with!