World

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Team Members:
Yen-Chu Tu (Email tu10@illinois.edu)
Chirag Patel(Email:patel178@illinois.edu)
Shawn ooi(Email:ooi1@illinois.edu)
Kritika Jetley(Email:jetley1@illinois.edu)
 Table Of Contents

1.Introduction..........................................................................................................Page 3
2.Learning Objectives.............................................................................................Page 3
3.Project Execution.................................................................................................Page 4
4.Team Members
a.Yen-Chu Tu.......................................................................................................Page 5
b.Chirag Patel......................................................................................................Page 6
c.Shawn Ooi........................................................................................................Page 6
d.Kritika Jetley.....................................................................................................Page 6
5.Future Work.........................................................................................................Page 7
6.Conclusion...........................................................................................................Page 8

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 1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of our project was to design a steam engine car that can be self-functioning and
move at least 1 foot without aid. The project was successful as the car was successfully
constructed and was fully functional. However, the functions could have been improved further
as the final demo day was not as successful as anticipated.

The interior of the car composed of four separate parts: the boilers, the turbine, the
wheels, and the fuel tank. These were all combined onto the chassis to create the final product of
the car. Water was added into the boiler, and alcohol was added to the fuel tank. When the fuel
tank wick was ignited, the alcohol is consumed as fuel to provide heat to the boiler, producing
steam to power the turbine.

The goals with which we constructed our car in mind were to construct a car that would
begin to run fast, as well as a car that can travel at a respectable velocity. Although our car was
able to do both, it suffered in reliability as steam often made the rubber band wet, compromising
the efficiency of energy transfer between the turbine and the front wheel.

2. Learning objectives
The purpose of the project was for us to develop both teamwork skills and acquire
experience in hands-on work with engineering.

Teamwork skills are essential to engineers as engineers are often required to work on
projects as teams. In a small team of 4, we were pressed to communicate, distribute, organize,
and present our ideas in constructing and modifying the car. Each member’s ideas were
examined and discussed as a group to determine whether it was to be used or to be discarded.
Through working together as a team, it is expected that by the end of the project we would be
able to work better with others, as we would have accumulated experience in doing so.

Hands-on work is also important as ideas must be executed to become reality. In the
classrooms, ideas and theories are taught, and ways of organizing ideas, brainstorming, and
planning execution of projects are practiced. However, there rarely is opportunity for students to
turn their ideas into actual objects. Through this project, it is hoped that we would understand
further what is necessary to produce a product from and idea, as well as the challenges and
roadblocks that are involved in doing so.

Overall, the achievement of these objectives were also successful. Further details will be
discussed in the Conclusion section.

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3. Project Execution

As the project composed of five separate parts (4 interior parts and the chassis), the work
was divided among our team members where one member would work on 2 parts (the two parts
that required the least work, fuel tank and wheels), while other members would work on a single
part each. The final product was created when individual parts were joined after the parts were
separately constructed. Although this method of work distribution ultimately led to the
completion of our project, it could have been improved. If members were to work on a task that
they specialized in instead of parts, the project would have ran more smoothly and more
efficiently.

Our car worked, as it was able to run without external aid. Simply by filling the fuel tank
and boiler and lighting the wick, the water was able to boil, and the steam was able to push the
car forward at a steady pace. However, as the steam was not very well controlled, the rubber
band connecting the turbine and the front wheel would get wet after a few intiail tries. The water
decreases the efficiency of the energy transfer, and the turbine would spin without the front
wheel providing any power towards moving the car. Also, the chassis was damaged as one of the
team members (no names... Chirag), “forgot” that fire is hot, and accidentally tipped overt the car
when he burnt his fingers. This resulted in the section of the chassis supporting the front wheel to
become bent, reducing the efficiency of the front wheel providing energy to the car as well.
These two problems decreased the reliability and efficiency of our system, making the car
incapable of running at full capacity.

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To

improve the car, the problems

mentioned in the above
 paragraph must be addressed. However, as the second problem was due to a human error, it
cannot be systematically avoided. The first problem can be fixed by controlling the steam more
to avoid any contact between the steam and the rubber band. By keeping the rubber band dry, the
energy of the turbine can be easily transferred to the front wheel and therefore put into moving
the car. It should also be noted
that an attempt at improvement in efficiency of boiling the car was adding boiling chips to the
water to accelerate the process of boiling the water.

4. Team members
a. Yen-Chu Tu
a. Fuel Tank and Wheels
a. The Fuel tank was important as it provides fuel to sustain the fire. In
other words, it provides heat to the boiler to produce the steam from the
water.
b. The wheels allow the car to move.
b. The fuel tank worked well, and specifications were met to our expectations.
However, the soldering of wheels was an unexpected obstacle as the soldering kept detaching. To
resolve this problem, the task of soldering was handed over to Shawn.

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b. Chirag Patel
a. Turbine
 a. a. The turbine was in charge of transferring the steam energy to
mechanical energy to the wheels.
b.The Turbine worked well.We encountered some problems in transferring the
energy from the turbine to the wheel.We solved this problem by using a looser rubber band.I also
made an extra turbine as me and the team thought the first one did not yield enough power.The
second one worked better.

c. Shawn Ooi
a. Chassis
a. The chassis holds the pieces together, and is the body of the car.
b. Soldering
a. Soldering of the wheels and the boiler
The chassis took some time to complete, but it worked well in the end. Some problems that were
faced while building the chassis were enlarging the holes after the chassis was folded and
ensuring that all the other individual components would fit well. Besides that, the soldering
process was long as well because the solder on the wheel kept coming off after we assembled it
on the car. The solder on the boiler had to be fixed numerous times because of the repeated leaks.
However, we managed to solve all the soldering difficulties after repeated attempts.

d. Kritika Jetley
a. Boiler
a. The boiler contains the water that is boiled to provide steam energy to
the turbine. The first step to construct the boiler was to poke 2 holes on
the base of the can. The two holes housed the 2 tubes that would,
eventually, let out the steam. The 2 tubes had to be firmly attached to
the can, without any leak in order for the steam to only come out
through the tube. It was important to solder the tubes to the can in order
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to make sure that the tubes were fixed firmly. The tricky part to the boiler was to make sure that
no major leakage is possible, which means, that most of the steam comes out through the tube
and makes the turbine move.
b. The soldering was tricky and we worked together on it, as a team,
several times. We faced repeated failure and then realized that the
leakage wasn’t important as long as the major part of the steam fell
 tangentially on the turbine. Shawn helped with the soldering and made it
possible.
c. Also, we had to make sure that we do not damage the boiler during
testing as we could not get another one and we did not want to use a
bad boiler due to any error we committed. The tube was aimed
tangentially on the turbine to maximize the effect of the steam falling on
the turbine to make it move.

5. Future Work
As mentioned above, the car was not able to run at maximum efficiency. To improve the
car, the efficiency of the car and the reliability of the car must be improved. In order for the car
to move faster and more efficiently, we feel that oiling the wheels and the turbine would help
create less friction for the parts to move swiftly. We should find other ways to decrease the
friction between the wheels and the ground as well as the wheels and the turbine so that the car
can move faster.
The part that we overlooked during out test runs was that when the rubber band was wet,
it would slip off from the front wheel, cutting down contact between the turbine and the front
wheel. We should find a way to prevent that from happening. Maybe putting less water would
help so that excess water was not allowed to spray out of the car while the boiler was heated.

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6. Conclusion
Through the project, we learned the importance of team work and team participation. The whole
project gave us amazing experience of working with people, from different backgrounds and to
use each others strengths to make the entire project successful.
We learned how to work on assigned parts and how to listen to every suggestion before
making a practical decision. The project was more than just building a car. It taught us the basic
concept and gave us the freedom to experiment within a range, which helped us think clearly and
practically.
 We learned to help each other with the parts of the car and started taking criticism from
our fellow team members in a positive sense. We supported each other through the project and
learned from mistakes. The whole atmosphere of competition made us critically examine every
step we took to make the car better.
Our car was not the best out of all the ones made, which made us think harder about
where we went wrong and how we could improve our work. The competitiveness brought out the
best in us and we, along with all the other teams, tried to think ‘outside the box’ and tried coming
up with unique ways to improve the performance.
The project taught us the exigency of things and helped us look for immediate flaws that
might harm the performance. It made us think critically about all our work and observations and
prioritize tasks to maximize efficiency.
As a whole. the project helped us practically experience team work, participation and
reporting and taught us some basics of the major engineering projects we will encounter in the
future.
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