MAE 2250 Spring 2014
Section #
Project Report Title
Replace this box with a picture
of your product
<Revision date>
Team Member Names
Team #
2
Table of Contents
Section 1: Team Overview.............................................................................................................. 4
Week 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Week 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 4
Section 2: Product Planning ............................................................................................................ 5
Project Goal and Description ...................................................................................................... 5
Products Considered ................................................................................................................... 5
Product Choice ............................................................................................................................ 5
Section 3: Conceptual design .......................................................................................................... 6
Customer needs ........................................................................................................................... 6
Specifications .............................................................................................................................. 6
Concept generation ..................................................................................................................... 6
Concept selection ........................................................................................................................ 7
Project plan ................................................................................................................................. 7
Section 4: Detailed design and analysis .......................................................................................... 8
Example Calculations from MAE 4272 ...................................................................................... 8
Section 5: Testing and refinement of prototype ............................................................................ 11
Section 6: User documentation and marketing materials ............................................................. 12
[ Don’t forget to have page numbers somewhere on each page ]
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Section 1: Team Overview
(include this section in the first week, update thereafter)
 List team members
(include contact information to facilitate team communication)
Week 1


Who did what, who is responsible for what
Updates by week: What was added/revised in this document each week by section. If
nothing added/changed, say "No change".
Include:
 Meeting minutes: when/where meeting took place, who participated, what you talked
about, conclusions you came to, action items, why you decided the things you did,
changes to original design, work that you broke up, etc.
 Any thoughts you had: weird design concepts, things other groups did that you noticed
or liked, anything you learned, etc.
 Anything you did that day: submitted McMaster orders, emails to TAs or questions
answered, parts you machined, presentations you gave, etc.
Week 2
Next week's update
Try to have some sort of heading system or just some sort of organizational system for your
report - make it easy for your TA to find things and give you feedback.
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Section 2: Product Planning
(include this section in the first week)
Project Goal and Description
What is the goal of this project? What is this project all about? Help someone who doesn't know
anything about the project get caught up. Write it as though MechE students from a different
university needed to read it (as opposed to your TAs who already know the project).
Products Considered
List products you considered. For each provide description, key features and value statement.
competing products on the market. List at least two products for each team member (i.e., eight in
total for a team of four). List the person's name next to each product.
Product Choice
Describe the product your team chose, and why.
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Section 3: Conceptual design
(start this section in the first week, update thereafter)
Customer interviews
Who are potential customers, list of interviewees, raw results from each interview
Customer needs
Distill interviews into properly formulated needs. List, extend and expand customer needs.
Explain sources, interviews. Prioritize needs.
Specifications
Translation of needs to technical terms. Metrics, ideal values and acceptable ranges (without
presuming a solution - as shown in class)
Concept generation
Exploration of the design space: brainstorming session results, morphological chart,
benchmarking of existing designs. At least 5x5 concepts + brief description
Sketches can be scanned, but try to type as much as possible. If you must scan, make sure it is
legible- pictures and words.
Example figure
Below is an example of a good plot. No gridlines, no double figure outlines, readable text,
labeled axes and title, and clear experimental data point markers.
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Pressure Distribution for α = 0°
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
-Cp
Experimental
0.0
Potential
Flow
-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
x/c
Figure 1: Figure Title
Include figure description and importance (how did the figure help you in your design process?).
Figures could be morph charts, Gantt charts, decision matrix, dependency chart, presentation
slides, part drawings, CAD models.
If your document starts getting really large, try compressing the pictures (in MS-Word, doubleclick on a picture, under Format tab choose “Compress Pictures”).
Concept selection
Brief analysis, specification matching and selection matrix.
Project plan
Detailed development schedule. Strategy to minimize development time. Identify bottlenecks
and challenges
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Section 4: Detailed design and analysis
(start this section in the second week)
Details. Geometries, materials, tolerances, production, tooling
Full analyses, e.g. Stresses, forces, weight, cost, safety, usability, disposability,
manufacturability, other customer needs. Quantitatively analyze at least three performance
aspects
CAD model (photorealistic rendered images, animation)
Production drawings + assembly documentation
IP analysis: Existing patents infringed, new IP that could be filed
Note on calculations: Explain your calculation process and assumptions, and label your
constants. Help whoever is reading your notebook understand your process. Also explain what
you concluded from your calculations; are the numbers realistic?
If you include a finite element analysis, back up your analysis by a simple analytical calculation
to show you are in the correct ballpark. For example, if you do an FEA of a complex cantilever
beam, compare to the deflection of a simple beam of the same material and loading conditions.
Example Calculations from MAE 4272
While drafting on the highway can be very dangerous, it is a good study in drag reduction. For
example, a car traveling in front of a truck will reduce the truck’s drag coefficient compared to if
it was traveling on its own. The car can be approximated as the plate and the truck as the square
cylinder from this experiment. The figure below illustrates how the streamlines flowing over the
car interact with the truck behind it, lowering the drag on the truck.
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Figure 15. Streamlines across a car and truck convoy
Making the following assumptions,

The car is 37% of the truck height

The power output of the truck remains constant

The truck is always at a distance that minimizes drag

The only losses are aerodynamic ones
Using the optimum value of drag reduction for the 37% plate, we write,
𝐶𝐷
𝐶𝐷,𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒
= 0.047
(1)
Using the formula for the drag coefficient,
𝐶𝐷 =
𝐷
(2)
1 2
2 𝜌𝑈 ℎ𝐿
We rewrite the drag coefficient ratio as,
𝐷
1 2
2 𝜌𝑈 ℎ𝐿 = 0.047
𝐷𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒
(3)
1 2
2 𝜌𝑈𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝐿
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Where D is the drag force, ρ is the fluid density, and h and L are the cylinder dimensions.
With constant fluid density and dimensions of the cylinder, this reduces to,
𝐷
𝑈 2 = 0.047
𝐷𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒
2
𝑈𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒
(4)
The constant power output assumption for this scenario states that,
𝐷𝑈 = 𝐷𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑈𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒
(5)
Using this relationship in the drag coefficient ratio, we find as the relationship between
velocities,
𝑈𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒 3
(
) = 0.047
𝑈
(6)
If we assume the truck was traveling at 65 mph in the bare case, this formula yields a drafting
speed of 180 mph for the same power output of the truck. This value is unrealistically large
because the driver would reduce the power input to the engine rather than increase his speed to
180 mph. However, this shows how drafting can significantly reduce the drag experienced by a
vehicle.
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Section 5: Testing and refinement of prototype
(include this section in the third week, update thereafter)
Fabrication: Quality, finish, precision
Performance: Test quantitative aspects against analysis
Evaluate Usability: Comfort, safety
Include lots of clean photos on white background – full photos and close-up of details.
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Section 6: User documentation and marketing materials
(include this section in the fourth week, update thereafter)
User manual, quick start, safety instructions, maintenance instructions, troubleshooting,
disclaimers and warning
Marketing material, glamour photos, demo movies, specifications and features, comparison to
selected competitors, pricing
Website with information, pricing, testimonials, team. No false advertising - you should be able
to back up every fact or claim using data this report
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