Ishan's Questions about Aeroshell 7/12/25
Original Question
Questions on the middle shell (posting here for vis). Mostly out of curiosity but also for planning:
Why do we need a middle shell, rather than just a top/bottom shell?
How does shipping this middle shell design out now for mold constrain our top/bottom shell designs?
How do we plan to connect the pieces of the mold?
Are the top/bottom shells already finished/close to completion?
What's the list of all mechanisms required and the status of each of them?
Is tilting mechanism now included in this? How difficult is this to implement with a middle shell?
What's the expected time for a single layup in comparison to last year?
Answers
Advait Joshi
We decided to go with middle shell bc then we could have an aerodynamic profile on both + initial idea was it would allow us to cut out core which would lighten the part a lot. Also middle shell should make wire routing for array/lights and waterproofing easier in theory (I think there was more i just can't remember)The faces which are shared on bottom shell and top shell with middle shell are locked but besides that in theory we could still make edits I thinkWe're going to use pieces of wood + rachets to line up pieces of the mold and then glue together. Unfortunately we can't really think of any better alternative.Yes, top and bottom shell should be close to done or are done, idk if any more revisions are planned to anything besides canopyMechanisms (Just listing em out, @Matthew Murzakucan give actual updates since this is his domain, not mine)
TS to MS
Canopy Hinging
TS to Frame (concept design is complete and reviewed at CDR, but placement/integration need to be worked on)
BS to Frame (nothing yet)
Canopy latching
Tilting mechanism - This one is hard, not just due to shell architecture but also general design. Our rollcage is very high and during tilting shell would have to go up and over it in most cases which becomes very complicated. Jason and matthew can provide more info about this one as wellExpected layup time: Ideally it'll be around 1/2 the time. For middle shell, assuming we can get the mold in by August 1st (3 weeks), both and I think that we can get it done before school starts (around 25 days) assuming we work like 5-6 days per week, 8 hrs each day, and have all the resources we need.
We'll see how it goes though with middle shell. Either way though the whole process should be a lot faster than last year that's for sure.
Matthew Murzaku
I don’t rly see any work being done in top shell/bottom shell so I consider them being done. We could work on canopy a bit more but a lot of people in the system worked on it last year so I don’t see us improving it much. The main work I want to be done on the shell would be the wheel covers since we only have like 6 iterations of those and they have the potential to minimize a lot of drag in the wheels.Here is the list of all the structural mechanisms of the car.
-canopy hinge (we have a preliminary design that has gotten feedback, she responded to the feedback so I want to see a more formal review for this)
-canopy latch (I want to make a new canopy latch. I assigned a member to this yesterday. I expect seeing a design in a couple of weeks.)
-wheel cover attachment (we have only had talks on how this works. no official cad yet but a person is assigned)
-top shell to frame (advait said the update)
-top shell to middle shell (hasn’t been assigned)
-anti-droop mechanism (hasn’t been assigned)
-tilting mechanism (hasn’t been assigned)
-bottom shell to frame (hasn’t been worked on)
Imo, I think we can def make some sort of tilting mechanism. I don’t think it’ll be hard to make something with the ms/ts resting on the ground leaning on the bs. It’ll get harder tho to make a hinging mechanism with it not resting on the ground.