Guidelines for the optimisation of racecars with CarMaker and IPG-KINEMATICS
The goal is obvious and with CarMaker and IPG-KINEMATICS the Formula CarMaker teams have the right ammunition to achieve an ideal construction of their racecar. But what is the best way to start? Christian Fritz from the HighSpeed-Karlsruhe team worked out a guideline during his diploma thesis at IPG to help the students to develop step by step the chassis of their Formula Student racecar and to optimise the vehicle for use on the racetrack.
Extremely short development times and a small budget - the students within Formula Student get rapidly acquainted with the factors of time and money. Therefore it is not surprising that more and more teams, like their counterparts from the race series, choose virtual development methods. The continuous increase of teams who register for the Formula CarMaker program confirms this trend. The teams benefit from the free use of the simulation programs CarMaker and IPG-KINEMATICS and can perform important vehicle tests before constructing their racecar.
However before they can let their car race over CarMaker's virtual test tracks, some preliminary work has to be done. To use the full potential of the driving dynamics simulation, the future Formula Student vehicle must be represented as accurately as possible. Otherwise it will not be possible to compare the results of the simulation with real driving tests. But a lot of students are uncertain with these very topics: model parameterisation and validation. How should the model of the front axle be defined? What kind of measurements should be performed? How can you be sure that the vehicle model really corresponds to the "actual"? Christian Fritz attached particular importance to these questions in his diploma thesis about the "Driving dynamics analysis of a Formula Student Racecar". He explains in detail how to generate and validate a first vehicle model with measurements and tests. The diploma thesis thus fulfils the function of a guideline, which explains step by step how IPG-KINEMATICS and CarMaker can be used for the chassis development and vehicle optimisation for a Formula Student racecar.
These comments are not only abstract, but also based on the development for the racecar "F101" from Karlsruhe's College. Christian Fritz is one of the three main project managers responsible and has collaborated intensively with the "F101" during his diploma thesis at IPG. Christian Fritz talks about the work with the IPG-tools: "The F101 is our first racecar. CarMaker and IPG-KINAMTICS were a great help to optimise our vehicle's construction. We were able to discover problems in the conception and could solve them before the run at the Hockenheimring." It really led to great success: As debutants, the students from the HighSpeed-Karlsruhe team reached 15th place in the overall standings at the Formula Student event in Hockenheim.
The prospective engineers wish to outperform this success in the coming season. Therefore they plan to use CarMaker and IPG-KINEMATICS more intensively. Christian Fritz about their pre-arrangements: "Our goal is to start working during the design phase with CarMaker and IPG-KINEMATICS. IPG-KINEMATICS is an excellent tool for chassis development and the kinematics of the axles can be integrated directly in the driving dynamics model of CarMaker. Both models are easy to use and clearly arranged. It is easy to discover driving dynamics coherences and to find an optimal set up of the racecar without being a professional."
We, from IPG thereby wish the HighSpeed-Karlsruhe team good luck. Christian Fritz's guidance surely will help them and other Formula Student teams to use the driving dynamics simulation for the development and construction of their racecars advantageously.
