Matthew Miceli Senior Design Presentation Reviews 4/25/2019

SAE Aero Regular class

Team 25

4/23/2019

1:00 PM

The goal of the experiment was to create an airplane, under certain restrictions, that could

carry a specific load, simulating passengers and luggage. The plane would fly in a national

competition in which hit had to take off on a 200 ft runway and make a loop around a certain

area. The criterion for the competition included how many passengers the plane could hold and

how well the plane could take off among other things. Overall, the plane finished in 29th place

out of 37 with 2 successful flights attempts out of 5, carrying a total of 20 passengers.

The three main materials used in the creation of the airplane were balsa wood, foam,

and epoxy. For the wings, foam was used with a rod running though the length of the wings.

They did not specify the material of the rod; however, the rod should theoretically increase the

stiffness of the wings, allowing for a somewhat light and stiff structure. The body of the plane

was made with balsa wood, also light and rigid. Finally, epoxy was used an adhesive for the

materials of the plane.

Matthew Miceli Senior Design Presentation Reviews 4/25/2019

Chandler’s NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge

Team 24

4/25/2019

3:00 PM

This project aimed at creating a man-powered rover for a competition held in Huntsville,

Alabama. The goal was to create a rover that was collapsible, light, and could complete

competition runs in a timely manner. Each team was allowed to perform two runs, the best of

which was kept and used for scoring. The LSU team experienced failure on the rear crankset

during the first run and fixed it for the second run.

In designing the wheels, a solid wheel design was chosen to increase strength. Each

wheel was composed of polyurethane with a 0.012” carbon fiber surrounding on each side. In

order to save on weight, they used a honeycomb polyurethane core for the wheels. The

driveshaft was composed Aluminum 6061-T6 in order to save weight, while the chains were

made of hardened carbon steel to increase strength in response to last year’s failures. Finally, a

trapezoidal configuration was used in the shape selection of the main frame in order to increase

its moment of inertia while reducing its cross-sectional area, and Aluminum 6061-T6 was used

due to its strength-to-weight ratio..