Optimization Of Mechanical Coupling In Electric Vehicle (ev)

Abstract

Evergreen is UTeM’s latest Electric Vehicle (EV) being developed by lecturers and students from Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Faculty of Electric Engineering in order to compete in PGMC (Proton Green Mobility Challenge) competition. Evergreen is a standard Proton Saga BLM with 5-speed manual transmission system. This car is transformed to electric vehicle by removing the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) and replaced with DC electric motor. Mechanical Coupling is the parts of the engine system that integrate the DC electric motor with the 5-speed manual transmission. Literature review on the transmission analysis show most of the studies are done on the shaft or drive train. Thus, for this project, the study will focus on the performance of the Mechanical coupling. By using SolidWorks, two type of study is done on the Mechanical Coupling, which is static analysis and buckling analysis. Static analysis focus is to study the strength of the material used for the coupling while buckling analysis objective is to study the stability of the Mechanical Coupling’s structure. The results obtain from static analysis shows that no material failure is occur on Mechanical Coupling. The material used, Alloy Steel, is strong enough to absorbs loads apply to Mechanical Coupling. However, the coupling experiencing structure instability based on the result obtains from buckling analysis. Data obtain from buckling analysis shows that buckling failure is occur on the structure of the Mechanical Coupling. As conclusions, no material failure is occur as the strength of the Alloy Steel able to overcome the loads apply to Mechanical Coupling. Unfortunately, due to the existing of buckling failure, the design of the Mechanical Coupling needs to change in order to minimize the buckling effect.