TESTING
Testing took place over the course of several weeks. Several tests were done in order to determine how well the end result of the vehicle met the requirements set in place by the designers. When testing the suspension, three tests were performed:
​
-
Part interference
-
Turn Diameter
-
Two foot drop
​
The first test was relatively simple. Various parts in the steering system and suspension needed to be checked in order to ensure that there was no part interference. This was done using a set of calipers, which gave an accurate enough measurement between parts as they moved through their full range of motion. The next test was determining whether or not the car could maintain a turn diameter of 5 feet. A starting point was determined, and the car went through three trials for right and left turns at a slow speed and a fast speed, for a total of 12 data points. The final test was the two foot drop, where the car's suspension was put to the test to see if it would not deflect more than 1.5 inches. Collecting data for the drop test proved difficult. Initially, the car was dropped from two feet, and the video footage was analyzed and only an approximation was made when determining the amount of deflection in the suspension. After the poor quality of the data for this test, the procedure was redefined and another test was performed. This time, measuring the suspension deflection was paramount, so a yardstick was taped to the wall near the dropping point. While data was still approximated, the addition of the yardstick allowed the team to much more accurately measure the deflection.
RESULTS
The tests, for the most part, were successful. In the first test, there were no parts that failed to travel their full range of motion without interfering with another part. The required distance was no less than 0.1 inches, which the car passed without any issue. During the turn diameter test, the car performed very well when turning to the left, but the car did not do very well when making right turns. Some work still had to be done in order to make the car meet the requirements when turning to the right. The graph below shows the range of values for each trial and speed that the car generated during the test. It can be seen clearly that the right turns were far over the required 60 inch mark.
​
​
​
​
​
​
The drop test was also a success. After making the changes necessary to get the right data, the car went through two drops. The low number of trials were to reduce the risk of damaging the vehicle too heavily. After the two tests, the footage taken was analyzed to the best of the team's ability. During both tests, the car did not deflect more than 1.5 inches, in fact it didn't deflect more than 1.0 inch, which was a major success for the suspension. The table below shows the data taken from the two trials.
