At a glance
Project Orca is the Human Powered Submarine Team’s eco effort to manufacture our submarine hull using sustainable materials… Read full summary
- Funding received
- 2020-2021
- Large
- Awarded
- $2,000
- Funding partners
-
- Services and Activities Fee (SAF)
- Website & social links
Project Orca is the Human Powered Submarine Team’s eco effort to manufacture our submarine hull using sustainable materials such as flax fibers and a recycled foam core. As an undergraduate engineering team at the University of Washington, our main goal is to provide our nearly 50 member team with as much real engineering experience as possible by designing, manufacturing, testing, and racing a competitive human powered submarine. Given our philosophy, this year we decided to take a more sustainable approach to our normal engineering practices. In years past, we have almost always had a carbon fiber hull. All the materials used in this process are very detrimental to the environment and the production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Our team has spent this school year (2020-2021) pursuing new innovational challenges. Taking this stance towards sustainability, we believe that this project is a very innovative way to incorporate sustainable practices into a field that does not have direct ties to sustainability. The plan is to use this new sustainable flax fiber hull for two years and then dispose of it properly . We aim to reduce our carbon footprint as an engineering team, give our members valuable sustainable engineering experience, and set a sustainable example for other engineering clubs.
As an undergraduate engineering team at the University of Washington, our main goal as the Human Powered Submarine team is to provide our roughly 50 team members with as much real engineering experience as possible by designing, manufacturing, testing, and racing a competitive human powered submarine. We believe that the experience we gain will propel us into our post graduate engineering careers. Given our philosophy, this year we decided to take a more sustainable approach to our normal engineering practices.
Each year our team engineers a new submarine for a given competition by building on past designs, and pursuing new innovation challenges. We use the same hull for two years in a row, and every other year we design and manufacture a new and improved version. This school year (2020-2021), we will be manufacturing a new hull.
In years past, we have almost always manufactured our hull using a carbon fiber polymer reinforced composite layup process. All the materials used in this process are very detrimental to the environment. The production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as well as being about 14 times as energy intensive as steel manufacturing. In addition, the epoxy resins normally used in the manufacturing process are plastics that create a lot of waste and tend to sit in landfills after use.
In order to reduce our carbon footprint as an engineering team, give our members valuable sustainable engineering experience, and set a sustainable example for other engineering clubs, we have decided to manufacture our submarine hull using a sustainable and natural process. After researching for the duration of autumn quarter, we have decided to manufacture our submarine hull using natural flax fiber and a recycled foam core in a resin infusion layup process. This material has been proven in many other applications so we expect it to be very feasible for our intentions. We are seeking $2000 in funding for the purchase of these sustainable materials for our hull.
Our work will be conducted in several lab and manufacturing shop locations at the mechanical engineering building. Our members have already assisted in the research and sustainable design of the hull and will continue to assist in manufacturing the submarine hull throughout the remainder of the school year, under the supervision of our team leads and guidance of our faculty mentors.
Alex Bartoletti
Project lead
- alexbart@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
Noah Adler
Team member
- noadler@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
Dear CSF Committee,
My name is Alex Bartoletti and I am an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington. I am the Hull Team Lead for the UW Human Powered Submarine (UWHPS) team on campus and we are requesting funds for the manufacture of our newly designed sustainable hull for the 2021-2022 school year. As a team, we design and build a submarine every year to race at the International Submarine Races (ISR) in Maryland and European International Submarine Races (eISR). We use the same hull for two years in a row, and every other year we design and manufacture a new and improved composite hull to be used in the subsequent two years. This school year (2020-2021), we will be manufacturing a new hull.
This year our team decided that we wanted to take a new approach to manufacturing our submarine hull. In years past, we have almost always used a carbon fiber reinforced polymer layup. All the materials used in this process are very detrimental to the environment. The production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere as well as being about 14 times as energy intensive as steel manufacturing. In addition, the epoxy resins normally used in the manufacturing process are plastics that create a lot of waste and tend to sit in landfills after use. With this knowledge, we decided to make it our goal to manufacture the new submarine hull in the most sustainable and environmentally conscious method.
Since setting this goal, our team has immersed ourselves in research on sustainable materials and manufacturing processes that can suit our submarine needs. Ultimately, we have decided that we want to use a natural flax fiber with an eco-friendly epoxy resin in a resin infusion layup process with a recycled foam or balsa wood core material. We chose flax fiber for ease of use and naturally sustainable properties. It also shows desirable strength and stiffness properties suitable for the durability necessary in our submarine. Another option we considered was recycled chopped carbon fiber, but this material is less sustainable and presents a more difficult manufacturing process with more variable results. In addition to a sustainable fiber, we decided that an eco-friendly epoxy resin was equally necessary. Our research pointed us to a few companies such as Entropy Resins, who develop bio-based resins.
We believe that these components can help us become more sustainable, and act as a role model for the many other engineering clubs at the UW and elsewhere who use carbon fiber reinforced polymers year after year. We want to be able to teach our fellow engineering teams how to use more sustainable material and educate them on the differences and benefits compared to traditional carbon fiber. Hopefully, we can motivate other teams to take a longer look at environmental sustainability in their projects.
Our engineering club consists of about 50 members from multiple engineering disciplines. The club and projects are student run and executed with some guidance and advice from our faculty advisor, Benjamin Maurer. The main goal on the human powered submarine team is to give students real engineering experience while working together to build a competitive submarine for competition. At the moment, our team is very young and lacks a lot of technical experience in composite design and manufacture. As the Hull Team Lead, I would be in charge of helping my own team members, as well as members from other sub-teams learn these processes both in person and remotely. In a world where focus on environmental impact has become so important, I see a great opportunity to train these members with a distinct focus on sustainability.
Last year, our team placed first in our virtual design competition and we are motivated by this win to push further and harder. We are currently ahead of schedule, and with this year’s competition already announced to be virtual, we have all the more time and excitement to dive into sustainability. In communication with our sponsors, we have begun to organize workshops and tutorials that can be held in person (if possible) or remotely to teach our members more about engineering composites. It is another goal of ours to get as much positive engineering and sustainability experience out of this project as possible. This will help put forth more experienced and environmentally responsible engineers into the workforce.
We are asking for your funding to purchase flax fiber, eco-friendly resin systems, and any other necessary environmentally sustainable materials or supplies to complete the manufacture of our submarine hull. We are already in communication with suppliers and plan to order material by the end of Autumn quarter and begin manufacturing of the hull by the end of winter quarter. We expect the flax fiber to cost about $1800, the resin to cost about $650, and core material to cost about $100. Our annual Hull Team budget is normally about $1350 but this year there may be some additional funding moved around to help us pay for the new hull. Our Hull Team budget includes the money also needed to manufacture other system components not included in this sustainability proposal. This includes manufacturing the window, control fins, and fairings and the materials necessary for these processes.
We believe that we can start a positive change towards sustainability in the engineering clubs at the University of Washington and our team is dedicated towards making this happen. Please reach out to me if you have any more questions about our project or plan. I, as well as my whole team, am very excited and passionate about what we are trying to do and I would love to speak with you more.
Sincerely,
Alex Bartoletti
alexbart@uw.edu
425-753-7458
Request amount and budget
How the project will react to funding reductions
With the CSF Funding we plan to fully cover the material cost of the Bcomp flax fiber as reinforcement for our hull. This will increase our team’s sustainability by reducing our carbon emissions and promoting sustainable engineering practices. A 50% reduction in funding would mean the funds could not cover the material cost but would then go towards the costs induced by shipping core foam, and foam for the mold. As well as covering transportation to get the mold manufactured and serviced. A 20% reduction in funding would cover the cost of the resin used in the resin infusion process in addition to the transportation costs stated above. A 10% reduction in funding would cover all transportation and material costs associated with the manufacturing of the hull other than the cost of the sustainable fibers used as the matrix forming the hull.
Plans for financial longevity
The Human Powered Submarine team consists of a dedicated group of about 50 undergraduate students in various engineering majors. We are supported by a plethora of motivated faculty and passionate sponsors that encourage us to push boundaries and forge ahead. Over the next several years, our team members will design, build, redesign and rebuild hull componentry and features in preparation for a competition each year. We expect to use this hull for at least the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 competitions seasons. Although naturally biodegradable, the fiber will not break down inside the hull while in its resin matrix. Only minor exterior touch ups may be necessary. Future years leads will oversee the development and path of submarine subsystems and hull maintenance. With access to some of the most advanced labs, shops, and workspaces in university engineering we will maintain and improve the integrity of the hull. We also have multiple sources of funding from our team members, sponsors, and engineering departments. This gives us the freedom and peace of mind to explore and implement new features and processes that other teams may not have the ability to do.
At the end of this hull’s life, the team will look into next steps for the hull. They may decide to put it into use again, display it, auction it for team funding, or research ways to break down the resin matrix, obtain, and reuse the original flax fiber. Alternatively, at this point the team could decide to pursue a new innovation or hull material or go back to using carbon fiber reinforced composites. If the team decides to use flax fiber again, they may pursue additional funding from the CSF, sponsorship from the sourcing companies, or even buy the material outright. Much depends on the team interests and budget at this point in the future.
Problem statement
In years past, our engineering team has almost always used a carbon fiber reinforced polymer layup process to manufacture our submarine hull. The materials in this process pollute the environment and increase the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere. The production of carbon fiber releases a significant amount of greenhouse gasses and it is about 14 times as energy intensive as steel manufacturing, for comparison. In addition, the epoxy resins and foam cores normally used in the manufacturing process are non-recyclable and create a lot of waste.
This year, to mitigate our environmental impact, we have decided to manufacture our hull using environmentally sustainable materials that still retain our strict material strength requirements. We started by researching natural fibers, recycled carbon fiber, and dissolvable resin matrices and ultimately decided to use natural flax fiber.
Our research into natural fibers was initially disappointing but we ended up finding a perfect fit. Preliminary research pointed towards difficulty obtaining and manufacturing using natural fibers. Natural fibers have the tendency to soak up moisture more than carbon fibers and fiberglass. Since we are building a submarine, this initially turned us away. But after further research, we found a company called Bcomp in Europe who manufacture flax fiber called Amplitex. Their fiber has been used in many applications throughout Europe ranging from racing boat hulls to Formula 1 composite parts. The flax fiber offered the strength and stiffness we needed and was already proven to work well in industry.
After our research and calculations, the team determined that the flax fiber was our best option in terms of strength, sustainability, and availability. In addition, through our sustainability research and contact with various sponsors and composites suppliers we found recycled foam to use as a core material at no additional monetary cost, further increasing our sustainability.
Measure the impacts
Project Orca aims to reduce the carbon emissions associated with using carbon fiber while involving and educating our team members about sustainable solutions. Calculations had to be performed to make sure that the carbon dioxide emissions from producing carbon fiber would still be significantly more than the emissions from shipping the flax fiber from Europe to the US on a cargo ship. Team members compared flax and carbon fiber carbon dioxide emissions by assuming negligible flax production emissions and negligible carbon fiber shipping emissions. Using formulas for carbon fiber production and electricity use emissions, as well as a formula for fuel consumption to quantify cargo shipping emissions, we found that carbon fiber production creates about 100,000 times the carbon emissions as shipping flax fiber for the same mass. This is so large because the flax fiber is such a small percentage of the max load carried by the cargo ship.
Millions of college engineering students are graduating each year and entering the workforce in all different industries and capacities. At a time where our environment is at a critical tipping point, it is more important than ever to educate our younger generations in the area of sustainability. It is important that new engineers enter the workforce conscious of their environmental responsibility and more prepared than ever to innovate old and environmentally detrimental processes. Our impact is measured by our reduction in carbon emissions and the idea of engineering for sustainability that we can instill both on our team and in the engineers around us. We believe that metrics we can use to track this include the number of submarine showcase events we have attended, number of teams we have reached out to and educated about sustainable engineering, and number of members we have graduated into the engineering workforce.
Education and outreach goals
A human powered submarine is not a common sight. This makes our submarine one of the centerpoints of attention at University of Washington events such as the Dawg Days RSO Fair, Engineering Launch, Discovery Days, and Introduce a Girl to Engineering. At each of these events our submarine is on full display for all University of Washington students to admire. Our team members occupy booths and tents where onlookers can come ask questions and learn more about the materials and development of our submarine. Specifically at engineering discovery days and Introduce a Girl to Engineering, we instill the idea of engineering for sustainability in the minds of elementary, middle, and high school students who come to learn about STEM at the University of Washington.
In addition, we have made it our goal to document the sustainable design and manufacturing processes of our hull to share with the other engineering teams at the UW. This will also be a major talking point at our International competition where we will discuss our sustainable efforts with the judges and other competitors. There are many other student led clubs and projects that incorporate the use of polymer reinforced composites on various scales. These teams almost solely use carbon fiber and fiberglass as reinforcement. We believe that by reaching out to these teams and educating them on our sustainable endeavors, we can help urge them to shift their practices towards a more environmentally friendly direction. Once our hull has been successfully completed, we plan to reach out to these teams with more specific and meaningful information.
Covid-19 has made planning education and outreach more difficult than normal. There is so much uncertainty that we are still unsure what we will and will not be able to do. Until times are more certain, our social media platforms and newsletters will be vital to informing people in and around the University Washington about our sustainable endeavors.
Student involvement
The Human Powered Submarine team consists of 50 students in various engineering and engineering undeclared majors. The team is split up into six sub-teams who are responsible for different systems within the submarine. These sub-teams include: drivetrain, controls, propulsion, hull, electronics, and dive and safety. Each of these sub-teams are made up of anywhere from 2 to 15 members led by a team lead. The team as a whole is overseen by a technical director and an administrative director. Each respective sub-team works on a different aspect of the submarine, and it is the hull team’s job to design, manufacture, and test the new hull.
Project Orca consists of the manufacture of our composite hull using the resin infusion layup composite manufacturing technique. As hull team lead, I, Alex Bartoletti, am responsible for leading members of the hull team to complete this process. These team members will be directly involved in the hands-on processes of preparing the hull mold, practice layups, preparing the flax fiber for layup, vacuum sealing, epoxy matrix infusion, and post processing of the hull. These members will attend or have already attended safety training in the Mechanical Engineering Composites Prototype Lab and will continue to learn about best practices while working with composites from our team’s industry sponsors.
About 7-10 members will be involved in preparation of the female hull tooling mold at various stages. We will receive the mold as sheets of raw foam from the manufacturer and 1-2 members will spend about 2 hours gluing sheets together and cutting off extra sections in order to create a block of foam out of which the tooling mold can be machined. Once the machine work is finished, multiple members will work on the mold at separate times to clean the mold surfaces, seal the foam, smooth the surface and add mold release to the mold surface. This is a significant amount of prep work that will require research and hands on participation from team members.
Once the mold has been prepared, these same 7-10 members will have to prep the flax fiber and foam core to be laid up and laminated. 1-2 members will use drawing software and the CNC fabric cutter in the composites shop to cut out layers of flax fiber from a roll while conserving as much fiber as possible. 3-4 members will then have to prepare the mold for resin infusion. This is a tedious process that will take several hours. It consists of laying up the layers of fiber and core material and applying vacuum bagging materials and infusion tubing. Once members have applied a vacuum and decided that the system is leak-free, they will mix the epoxy resin and begin the infusion process. The infusion process itself will take less than an hour but the part will then need to cure under a vacuum for about 48 hours to reach maximum strength and durability. This process will have to be completed for the top and bottom halves of the hull, the hatch, and to join the halves of the hull together.
After the lamination process has been finished, all members will still have to work on sanding the exterior of the hull to remove scribe lines, blemishes, and prepare the hull surface for painting. This entire process is expected to take about 3 months to complete, starting at the end of winter quarter and ending near the end of spring quarter. But, even after this process has been completed, this hull will continue to be the centerpiece of our work on the Human Powered Submarine team for the subsequent two years. All of the rest of the members of our team will work to integrate a drivetrain, control system, propulsion system, electronics system, and safety system into this hull.
Covid-19 has made it more difficult for our team to access the composites lab, but many of our members are already certified as critical personnel, and may access the shop at any time while following strict guidelines. Those who do not currently have shop access will still be vital towards project Orca, so we plan to begin the process with as much involvement through research as possible and continue our work as soon as we can have an adequate number of members working in person.