James Fraser

Every year, shell runs a multi-national competition to design and construct a vehicle that runs off of a clean energy source to compete in the shell eco-marathon. The USEV team is divided into smaller sub-teams: Chassis, Body & Aerodynamics, Electronics and Stability & Control. Of these Sub-teams I am member of the Stability& Control team, which involves researching and designing the wheels, break systems and steering system. As part of this team I have been involved in researching the break… Mehr zeigen

Every year, shell runs a multi-national competition to design and construct a vehicle that runs off of a clean energy source to compete in the shell eco-marathon. The USEV team is divided into smaller sub-teams: Chassis, Body & Aerodynamics, Electronics and Stability & Control. Of these Sub-teams I am member of the Stability& Control team, which involves researching and designing the wheels, break systems and steering system. As part of this team I have been involved in researching the break and wheel systems, including the required bearings for these systems. I have also assisted some members of the management team in constructing Gant Charts to assist in keeping the team to a schedule.

More information on the shell Eco-Marathon found at: http://www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/shell-ecomarathon.html Weniger anzeigen

As part of my third year curriculum students had to form teams in order to design and construct a model air craft over the course of both semesters (approximately 24 weeks). An option given to all of the student teams was to enter the constructed aircraft into the BMFA Payload challenge. My team accepted this invitation and chose to enter the BMFA quantity challenge. The aim of the quantity challenge was to design and construct an aircraft to carry a payload around a circuit as many times as… Mehr zeigen

As part of my third year curriculum students had to form teams in order to design and construct a model air craft over the course of both semesters (approximately 24 weeks). An option given to all of the student teams was to enter the constructed aircraft into the BMFA Payload challenge. My team accepted this invitation and chose to enter the BMFA quantity challenge. The aim of the quantity challenge was to design and construct an aircraft to carry a payload around a circuit as many times as possible. The assigned payload was tennis balls and the final score was determined by the total number of tennis balls per lap of the circuit. In this competition my team ranked second, also the highest ranking European team, being surpassed by a team from the Beihang University in Beijing.

During my time in Strathclyde University this project has been far the most challenging, rewarding and practical. From this I gained a sense of working in a real engineering design team, working with a budget as part of a team, dividing into smaller sub-teams, sharing information and keeping constant logs of work. The project also served to put the knowledge I had acquired into real use, as well as seeing first hand the use of Computer Aided Design through the use of a laser cutter. Weniger anzeigen

A fifth-year master’s degree project has been conducted to develop and test a novel
pedalling mechanism (NPM) for a bicycle which aims to increase pedalling efficiency.
Analysis of existing designs was undertaken, followed by improvements and
manufacturing activities. Several setbacks which were encountered throughout the
project precluded the manufacturing of the latest design, but a testing programme
using an older prototype suggested that in fact the NPM was not as efficient… Mehr zeigen

A fifth-year master’s degree project has been conducted to develop and test a novel
pedalling mechanism (NPM) for a bicycle which aims to increase pedalling efficiency.
Analysis of existing designs was undertaken, followed by improvements and
manufacturing activities. Several setbacks which were encountered throughout the
project precluded the manufacturing of the latest design, but a testing programme
using an older prototype suggested that in fact the NPM was not as efficient as a
traditional bicycle. This project was not just a technical exercise – each team member
also learned important skills in project management, which have been reflected on
while recommendations have been made to guide the success of future projects Weniger anzeigen

Ever since the first launch of an unmanned satellite in 1957 the population of
unmanned satellites orbiting earth has been continuously increasing and as
of 2015 there are 1071 operational satellites orbiting the earth (Cain, 2015).
Once a satellite has completed its designated mission, if left in order which is
affected by atmospheric or lunisolar perturbations, will eventually re-enter the
earth’s atmosphere uncontrollably. An uncontrolled re-entry of this kind has
the… Mehr zeigen

Ever since the first launch of an unmanned satellite in 1957 the population of
unmanned satellites orbiting earth has been continuously increasing and as
of 2015 there are 1071 operational satellites orbiting the earth (Cain, 2015).
Once a satellite has completed its designated mission, if left in order which is
affected by atmospheric or lunisolar perturbations, will eventually re-enter the
earth’s atmosphere uncontrollably. An uncontrolled re-entry of this kind has
the potential to be hazardous to the ground and could harm the human
populace, as such satellites have to be designed for a controlled re-entry
which can be a complicated and expensive process. Regarding NASA
missions, the risk to ground of any debris that has re-entered the atmosphere
with a Kinetic Energy of 15J must be 1:10,000 (0.0001) (NASA, 2011). An
alternative to this which may simplify the design and reduce costs is
Spacecraft Design for Demise.

Spacecraft Design for Demise (D4D) is the design of a spacecraft, and its
components, such that it will completely melt or ablate (demise) upon
uncontrolled re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. If the satellite can
completely demise upon re-entry then the need for a controlled re-entry
would be eliminated. It is worth noting however that designing any
component in this manner can affect the overall mission performance of the
satellite. Weniger anzeigen