The
team is pleased with the speed of the car. With some tuning, the
car will be a front runner. Our focus needs to be getting the
car to be able to run full power reliably.
We
had three cells fail this weekend. It looks like they were all
damaged in the test day run.
Unfortunately, problems with the BMS during the test run keeps
us from seeing exactly what happened.
The pack started fully (over 95%) charged containing, in theory,
around 21.65 kW-hrs.
We only used 12.96 kW-hrs or 6/10's of the stored power, making
it unlikely that the cells that died where over-discharged
It
seems more probable that they were damaged by excessive heat.
Maximum
discharge temperature is 60 degrees C and maximum recharge temperature
is 45 degrees C.
We were doing both (regen and discharge) to 70 degrees C.
It
is clear our battery cooling modifications have been inadequate.
The batteries must be remounted in such a way that will allow
them to get better air flow.
Finally,
it is necessary for our next generator to be bigger, at least
15 kWs. We must be able to recharge completely between sessions.
