Optimizing Formula Student Car Performance with IoT

• Robots - Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV)
• Sensors - Autonomous Driving Sensors

• Automotive
• Packaging

• Product Research & Development
• Quality Assurance

• Smart Parking
• Vehicle-to-Infrastructure

• System Integration
• Testing & Certification

The Durham University Electric Motorsport (DUEM) team, a group of undergraduate and postgraduate students, were faced with the challenge of reducing the weight and improving the performance of their Formula Student vehicle. The team participates in the highly competitive Formula Student competition, hosted annually by the Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IMechE) at the Silverstone Formula 1 track in the UK. The competition requires teams to demonstrate their technical, engineering, design, and manufacturing skills, reflecting the changes and demands of the industry while considering new developments in commercial car racing. The DUEM team aimed to apply the latest weight-saving technology to achieve a faster, more efficient car by optimizing an upright design for multiple load cases. The optimization of the upright design was a complex challenge, requiring design for multiple load cases including bump, cornering, braking, and acceleration loads. The conventional means of design iteration for many load cases by removing areas of low stress at each iteration was time-consuming and the final solution was not necessarily the most structurally efficient.

The Durham University Electric Motorsport (DUEM) team is a UK-based team of students who design, build, and race electric vehicles. The team consists of more than 30 undergraduate and postgraduate students with specialties in Vehicle Dynamics, Electronics, and Aerodynamics. The team members volunteer to work outside of university hours to participate in motorsport competitions. The team has a track record of participating in international competitions, including the North American Solar Challenge and the World Solar Challenge in Australia. They are known for their innovative approach, being the first Formula Student team in Class 2 to design a Regenerative Magneto Rheological (MR) suspension system.

The DUEM team turned to Altair HyperWorks simulation suite, specifically OptiStruct, to meet this challenge. OptiStruct is a design tool that predicts optimal shapes of structures early in the design process using topology optimization methods, facilitating an analysis-driven design process that results in more efficient designs in shorter design cycle times. As the design process advances, OptiStruct's powerful shape and size optimization capabilities can be applied to further improve design performance. Using highly advanced optimization algorithms, OptiStruct can solve the most complex optimization problems with thousands of design variables in a short period of time. The design region was imported into OptiStruct and meshed. Load cases were applied for a 2g bump, 1.6g cornering, 1.6g braking, and combined braking, bumps and cornering load cases. Manufacturing constraints such as draw direction were applied to ensure that the final result is feasible for manufacturing. OptiStruct reduced the overall design cycle time of CAE-CAD iterations and enabled improvements.

• The use of OptiStruct resulted in a lighter, stronger upright design for the DUEM team's Formula Student vehicle. The software reduced the overall design cycle time of CAE-CAD iterations and enabled improvements. The quality of the tetra-meshing algorithm meant that meshing, rather than being a thorough and time-consuming process, was swift. Element quality checks were easy to use and helped ensure the validity of the results that were obtained. The edge checker also meant that no internal voids appeared in the topology results. The manufacturing constraints were simple to apply and made the software produce a result that could be machined cost-effectively with just a 3-axis mill. The results were easy to interpret, providing great insight into where design improvements could be made. This was very helpful and informative for the team. Looking forward, DUEM has chosen Altair as a strategic partner to help them implement the simulation-driven design process. They are looking to expand their use of simulation by using tools from Altair such as MotionSolve and the new Virtual Wind Tunnel for Multibody dynamics (MBD) and external vehicle aerodynamics studies respectively.

• Reduced weight of vehicle while keeping or increasing the component stiffness
• Sped up development time
• Saved material and real-world testing