Student Conference Best Paper Award

33rd World Automotive Congress in Budapest

Development and Production of an Advanced Composite Monocoque Structure for a Solar Power Race Vehicle. With this paper and presentation Diederik van Tricht, master student in Electromechanical Engineering and member of the 3rd Solar Team, engineer Brecht Van Hooreweder, and Prof. Guido Ceulemans went to the 33rd World Automotive Congress in Budapest. On June 3, 2010, during the closing ceremony, they received the Student Conference Best Paper Award.

Prof. Guido Ceulemans, Brecht Van Hooreweder, and Diederik van Tricht received the Student Conference Best Paper Award.

The 33rd world conference in Budapest was organized jointly by the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies (FISITA) and the Vehicle Division of the Hungarian Scientific Society for Mechanical Engineering (GTE).“It was indeed a world conference,” Brecht, Electromechanics Engineering doctoral student and member of Group T’s 2nd Solar Team, confirms. “No less than 700 papers and abstracts were submitted. This year, special attention went to engineers still studying and to recently graduated engineers. They were invited to submit a technical paper on one or more of the key topics of the conference. This Student Conference was held at the same time as the other conference although all papers are jointly published in the Conference Proceedings.”

The presentation of the Group T trio was scheduled under Development of Vehicle Parts and Systems and then again under the subcategory New Materials, Concepts and Body Design. “Our contribution in Budapest dealt with the body of the 3rd Belgian solar car, the Umicore Inspire,” Brecht continues. “Contrary to the first and the second car, it no longer consisted of an aluminum pipe frame but of a completely new monocoque structure from composite materials.”

The fact that the lightweight composite monocoque structure of the Umicore Inspire could take a beating was demonstrated after 400 km of racing in Australia. Because of an unexpectedly strong gust of wind, the solar car crashed into a tree at 110 km/h. “The car was completely destroyed but the driver was almost immediately able to get out of the wreckage safely and in one piece. A better proof of reliability and solidity is hardly imaginable," Diederik remembers. The knowledge of that certainly played a role in the decision of the conference jury in Budapest. Post factum still some good luck from great bad luck."
 

• Read the details on the advanced composite monocoque structure in Group T's newsmagazine, Interview.