Aims: The unit aims to introduce the specialist technologies employed in the design, manufacture, assessment, performance and improvement of sports vehicles. The scope of the unit embraces human-powered ground, air and water-borne vehicles.
Learning Outcomes:
After taking the unit students should be able to execute the engineering design and construction of vehicles in the context of a specific sport.
Skills:
Facilitated - intellectual, practical, key.
Content:
The unit is delivered as a series of case studies on sports vehicles. Examples might include:
(1) Bicycles: Motion, dynamics, balance, materials selection, gearing, manufacture.
(2) Windsurfers and yachts: Aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, materials optimisation, textiles, composites, manufacture.
(3) Hang gliders and gliders: Aerodynamics, lift, drag, materials selection, performance optimisation, record breaking.
(4) Canoes and rowing boats: Hydrodynamics, wood versus composites, construction, weight minimisation, competition classes, white water canoeing.
(5) Sledges and bobsleighs: Steel to ice interactions, friction, drag, design, centrifugal forces, classes of competition, materials of construction.
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