Engineering >> Mechanical Engineering

Effect of Wheel Size on Acceleration of Vehicle

by Joshua Grohman

 

Submitted : Spring 2011


The objective of this project was to find how the size of the wheels on a vehicle effects the vehicle’s acceleration and top speed. To determine the answer to this problem a series of physics and calculus formulas, as well as Mass, Torque, and RPM numbers from reference materials, was used to acquire the information needed to plot the velocity vs time curves.

After finding two curves for two identical vehicles with different wheel sizes it was clear that the vehicle with the smaller wheel size accelerated faster, but to a slower top speed, while the vehicle with the larger wheel size accelerated slower, but to a faster top speed.


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Advisors :
Brian Curtin, Mathematics and Statistics
Scott Campbell, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering
Suggested By :
Joshua Grohman