Ultralight Vehicles

1
Ultralight Vehicles

• Jayna Bhatt
• ChE 379

2
Overview

• What are Ultralight Vehicles?
• Ultralight Materials
• Composites and their Benefits
• Safety
• Efficiency
• Cost

3
What are Ultralight Vehicles?

• Lighter than conventional steel-based cars
• Increase efficiency
• Sometimes combined with hybrid technology
• Ultralight, yet very strong

4
Materials

• Sometimes lighter steels aluminum
• Decrease in amount of steel used
• Advanced Polymeric Composites
• Enhanced supporting matrix of polymer reinforcing
  fibers for strength
• Carbon-carbon composites tolerate high
  temperatures, but expensive

5
Composites and their Benefits

• Weight reduction greater
• 65
• Light steels aluminum 25 55
• Safer than reducing amount of steel
• Less material and parts required to build auto
  body

6
Composites and their Benefits

• Increased Durability
• No Rusting
• Leads to less parts
• Tolerate higher temperatures

7
Safety

• Mixing of cars okay
• Absorb 12 times amount of energy steel absorbs
• Greater strength and stiffness

8
Efficiency

• Lose extra, unnecessary weight
• ¾ energy needed to accelerate weight of car
• Double efficiency
• Combination of ultralight vehicles and hybrid

9
Cost

• Materials are more expensive
• Less material required
• No need for body shop/paint
• Balances out better mileage

10
Conclusions

• Lighter, more efficient
• Safer
• Pays itself off