Crimson Tide's Success in Formula SAE with Altair Tools

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Crimson Racing, the University of Alabama’s Formula SAE team, has been participating in Formula SAE events across the United States for nearly two decades. Despite their long history, the team's most successful years have been the past five, thanks to a focus on understanding and justifying every component of their race cars. The team had made significant advancements, reducing the vehicle weight by nearly 200 pounds and advancing from a perennial 90th place to a Top 20 team in 2017. However, they set an ambitious goal to place in the top 10 at FSAE Michigan, which would require beating many of the best teams in the world. To achieve this, they decided to add a front and rear wing to their vehicle. This change, while significant for aerodynamics, also affected the structures of the vehicle, increasing loading, raising the center of gravity, and increasing the drag force which the powertrain system must overcome. The suspension team had to revalidate every load-bearing suspension component to ensure adequate strength and stiffness requirements would be met, a complex task when analyzing parts moving in three-dimensions.

Crimson Racing is the University of Alabama’s Formula SAE team, founded in 2001. They have competed in Formula SAE events across the United States, including events in Michigan, Nebraska, and Virginia. The team has a history spanning nearly two decades with Formula SAE, with the past five years being the most successful in team history. This success is attributed to a concerted focus on understanding and justifying every component on their race cars. Crimson Racing has made significant advancements in recent years, reducing the vehicle weight by nearly 200 pounds and advancing from a perennial 90th place to a Top 20 team in 2017. They have set ambitious goals for themselves, aiming to place in the top 10 at FSAE Michigan.

To estimate the force inputs to the suspension, the team created an in-house tool to estimate vehicle performance when given basic vehicle dimensions, weights, and kinematic characteristics. From this tool, maximum tire loads were estimated for cornering, braking, and acceleration, and in combined scenarios at various speeds. With the assistance of Altair’s multibody dynamics software, MotionSolve, the team was able to build a model of the front and rear suspension by importing the geometric points, spring stiffnesses, anti-roll bar stiffnesses, and damping coefficients. Using these parameters, rigid bodies were created to represent all relevant suspension parts. The expected loads found from the tool were then set up as forces applied at the contact patch. Lastly, virtual sensors were placed on all suspension joints so forces and torques could be recorded and viewed in Altair’s post processor HyperView. With Altair’s help, the team was able to employ several design changes to significantly reduce the issue of high loads transmitted through the front pull-rod and the correspondingly high moments acting on the rocker.

• The use of Altair’s multibody dynamics software, MotionSolve, allowed Crimson Racing to build a model of the front and rear suspension, enabling them to estimate the force inputs to the suspension. This led to an earlier start to component design, allowing for modifications to be made to the kinematics if needed. The ability to adjust kinematics to resolve any high loads ultimately saves weight, increases stiffness, and reliability. One significant issue that MotionSolve helped resolve were the high loads transmitted through the front pull-rod along with the correspondingly high moments acting on the rocker. With Altair’s help, the team was able to employ several design changes to significantly reduce this issue, ensuring the success of their ambitious goal to place in the top 10 at FSAE Michigan.

• Reduced vehicle weight by nearly 200 pounds
• Advanced from a perennial 90th place to a Top 20 team in 2017
• 50 percent reduction of the rocker moment due to design changes