My name is Timothy Huang, and I am pursuing my Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering at California Baptist University. I enjoy CAD design and am skilled in using SOLIDWORKS. I enjoy rapid prototyping and often design small personal projects using my own 3D printer. I’ve also gained hands-on experience working in engineering clubs like Formula SAE, where I contributed to real-world engineering challenges.

Vehicle Suspension - CBU Motorsports (Formula SAE)

Formula SAE Electric Vehicle (FSAE EV) is a collegiate design competition where university students conceive, design, build, and race small, open-wheel electric race cars. Teams are challenged to develop a prototype electric vehicle that is evaluated not only on its on-track performance but also on its engineering design, cost, and a simulated business presentation. I was on the suspension sub-team, helping design anything from the wheels to the various rods to the shocks.

One specific task I had on the team was designing the bell crank. The bell crank connects the shocks to the wheels and controls the motion ratio, which is the ratio of the wheel displacement to the shock displacement. In our case, we wanted the wheel to move up and down around 1.1 inches for every 1 inch the shock travels. This motion ratio also had to remain at 1.1:1 instead of changing at different parts of the travel.

Initially, I was taught to do this by trial and error. I had to change the geometry of the bell crank randomly, move the shock to different lengths, measure the resulting positions of the wheel, then calculate the motion ratio. My team worked on this for many hours over several days, but we could not find working correct geometry. So, I decided to use a SOLIDWORKS 3d sketch to find the geometry for me.

In the 3D sketch, I drew three identical representations of the suspension assembly. Points fixed in space represented mounting points, and lines represented moving rods. The wheel of each copy was fixed at a different height, and the shock of each copy was fixed at its corresponding length. The bell crank was the only thing left undefined in the sketch, but relationships were used to ensure the shape of each bell crank remains the same in each copy. This forced SOLIDWORKS to find bell crank dimensions that would allow the suspension assembly to move through our desired path.

Skills

On the Formula SAE Electric Vehicle team, I developed strong problem-solving skills and learned to apply engineering tools creatively. When I had to design a bell crank with an exact and consistent motion ratio, my initial methods were too time-consuming. To improve the process, I used SOLIDWORKS 3D sketches to calculate the needed geometry computationally. This solution solved a key design problem and showed my ability to think creatively and push software beyond typical uses.

3D Printed Bridge Competion - Class Project

The 3D printed bridge competition was a collaborative group project involving myself and two other team members. The project's primary objective was to design a bridge capable of holding the most weight, while adhering to several strict constraints. These constraints included spanning a 16-inch gap, weighing no more than 350 grams, and being constructed solely from 3D-printed PLA and screws. Furthermore, each individual 3D-printed part could not exceed 6 inches in length.

I was primarily responsible for designing the bridge in SOLIDWORKS and testing the bridge. Our design process was highly iterative, involving five distinct revisions. Each revision was meticulously informed by the results of our testing and analysis, allowing us to progressively refine the bridge's performance.

For our initial design, we employed a triangular truss structure, strategically concentrating strength in the center where the load would be applied. A key consideration was to reduce the number of parts under compression, as buckling was anticipated to be a significant challenge. We also decided not to use screws and only use plastic joints to save weight. After testing the bridge, we realized we heavily underestimated how prone the bridge beams were to buckling.

For revisions two and three, I strengthened the cross bracing to prevent the bridge from buckling. After these two revisions, I was able to eliminate buckling at the joints, and the bridge was able to hold a lot more weight until failing by snapping a compression beam.

For the final revision, I increase the stiffness of the compression beams to prevent them from snapping. This revision was used in the competition. Our bridge secured first place in the competition, holding 582 pounds before the testing rig itself failed. All specified project constraints were met.

Skills

This project provided invaluable experience and reinforced several key skills. I learned the critical importance of meticulous attention to detail and the necessity of proactively clarifying instructions, especially when project definitions might be ambiguous. For instance, while it was called a "bridge," the design challenge differed from a traditional bridge due to the concentrated load application at its very center instead of a distributed load.

The project also taught me the importance of physical prototyping and testing. While FEA helped me optimize the design of each part, physical testing quickly revealed major problems. It was tempting to try to make the bridge slightly better before printing a prototype, but the faster we got prints in the faster our bridge improved.

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