Cai, Z. T., & Worm, J. J., & Brennan, D. D. (2012, June), Experimental Studies in Ground Vehicle Coastdown Testing  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21370

\bibitem{asee_peer_21370}
  Cai, Z. T., \& Worm, J. J., \& Brennan, D. D. (2012, June), \emph{Experimental Studies in Ground Vehicle Coastdown Testing}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21370

Zeit T. Cai, Jeremy John Worm P.E., and Drew Dosson Brennan.  "Experimental Studies in Ground Vehicle Coastdown Testing".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21370 Internet.  01 Jan, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_21370}
  Zeit T. Cai, Jeremy John Worm P.E., and Drew Dosson Brennan.
  "Experimental Studies in Ground Vehicle Coastdown Testing".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21370 Internet.  01 Jan, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21370
author = "Zeit T. Cai, Jeremy John Worm P.E., and Drew Dosson Brennan"
title = "Experimental Studies in Ground Vehicle Coastdown Testing"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21370}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21370}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Experimental  Studies  in  Coastdown  Testing    The  education  of  mechanical  engineering  students  favors  theoretical  concepts  over  practical  applications.  Students  take  multiple  courses  in  topics  such  as  dynamics,  mechanics  of  solids  and  fluids,  thermodynamics,  and  design  theory.  However,  oftentimes  the  only  exposure  mechanical  engineers  receive  to  practical  engineering  comes  in  the  form  of  a  laboratory  design  course,  in  which  they  learn  the  operation  of  tools  like  the  mill  and  the  lathe.  Few  if  any  educational  programs  exist  that  integrate  the  theoretical  and  practical  components  of  engineering.  Consequently,  mechanical  engineering  students  may  not  be  properly  prepared  when  entering  the  workforce.    This  paper  discusses  an  engineering  course  on  coastdown  testing  which  educates  students  in  both  engineering  theory  and  laboratory  techniques.  Coastdown  testing  is  the  process  of  accelerating  a  vehicle  up  to  a  high  speed  on  a  flat,  straight  road  and  coasting  in  neutral  down  to  a  low  speed.  By  recording  the  amount  of  time  the  vehicle  takes  to  slow  down,  it  is  possible  to  obtain  a  model  of  the  drag  forces  affecting  the  vehicle.  Obtaining  valid  coastdown  results  requires  several  steps,  including  data  collection  and  data  processing.    The  inherent  modular  nature  of  coastdown  testing  allows  for  easy  adaptation  to  a  laboratory-­‐based  course.  In  the  process  of  collecting  experimental  data,  students  familiarize  themselves  with  an  industry-­‐approved  procedure  for  coastdown  testing  (see  SAE  J1263)  and  learn  how  to  extract  relevant  information  from  a  car’s  internal  computer.  Through  data  processing,  students  gain  experience  with  MATLAB  by  interpreting  a  previously  developed  program,  which  takes  the  experimental  data  and  constructs  a  mathematical  force  model.      In  addition  to  developing  a  force  model,  coastdown  testing  also  reveals  certain  parameters  of  a  vehicle,  such  as  the  crosswind  drag  coefficient  and  the  rolling  resistance.  By  varying  other  car  characteristics,  such  as  the  weight,  tire  pressure,  and  frontal  area,  the  crosswind  drag  and  rolling  resistance  of  the  car  will  change.  Students  are  thus  afforded  the  opportunity  to  minimize  the  drag  forces  on  a  vehicle  (and  optimize  the  performance)  by  changing  other  variables.  In  summary,  coastdown  testing  provides  a  valuable  educational  opportunity  to  conduct  a  practical  mechanical  engineering  experiment.      
AU  - Zeit T. Cai
AU  - Jeremy John Worm P.E.
AU  - Drew Dosson Brennan
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Experimental Studies in Ground Vehicle Coastdown Testing
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21370
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21370
ER  -