Virtual development of racecars at the Formula Student competition
The tires of the FT2007 have scarcely cooled down after the recent European Formula Student competition in Hockenheim. Nevertheless the students from the Berlin FaSTTUBe team are already working on the design of their new racecar. Model based development methods play a particular role during this important concept phase.
The "Formula Student team of the Technical University Berlin", also named "FaSTTUBe", was founded in 2005 by a small group of students who wanted to broaden their horizon of the University's theoretical every day life. Even though the racing enthusiasts had to fight for their University's acceptance at the beginning, FaSTTUBe has been able to firmly establish itself as a group at the TU Berlin. The team grew up to 30 members coming from the following departments: mechanical engineering, computer science, electro technology and industrial engineering. Up to now they have created two racecars - the FT2006 and the FT2007.
Unfortunately, the Berlin students could not compete in this season's last Formula Student event in Italy because their engine broke down. Now faced with the construction of their third racecar, they have great plans: "Next year, we want to take part in the three major European events: England, Germany and Italy, and have the goal to qualify within the top 10," commented Malte Noß, who was responsible for the chassis of the FT2007.
Currently, the team is in the all-dominant concept phase. If a wrong decision is taken now, possible problems occurring later in the construction phase of the racecar could be hard to recover. Therefore the students do not leave anything to chance but verify their concepts with simulations on the computer. Malte Noß explains: "Regarding the time and cost factors, it would be all but impossible to test single devices before the completion of the racecar. The same goes for the control of the capability of the assembly, the ergonomics, the prevention of collisions and of course the test of the driving dynamics effects."
IPG helps the team by offering them the free use of CarMaker and IPG-KINEMATICS for Formula Student teams. Malte Noß: "The use of a driving dynamics programme is only possible in the first place by means of the sponsoring from IPG. Other solutions are too expensive or the volume is strongly restricted. IPG's programmes are easy to learn, very comprehensive and precise in the simulation." The Berlin students develop the kinematics of their new build on the virtual axle test bench and test it in the virtual vehicle on the virtual test track. Various kinematics solutions are presented in the simulation with IPG-KINEMATICS and are compared with each other. Afterwards, the axle kinematics are integrated in CarMaker and checked in the virtual driving test. The verification of simple but basic driving situations takes the center stage. Test runs on direct, flat tracks, steady-state runs with constant speed as well as accelerating and braking tests are done. Additionally they also simulate the effects of the track in case of a rough road or µ-split and of course they test on the Formula Student track (Skid-Pad, Acceleration, Autocross and Endurance).
At the current early phase, naturally not much data is available for the parameterization of the vehicle model. However, simulations with CarMaker can be done with a pre-parameterized Formula Student vehicle data set. In the course of the development, the model of the FT2008 will be more and more specified, so that it matches as accurately as possible the real racecar. Malte Noß reckons that he can parameterize and validate the vehicle model in an easy manner. He mentions the modelling of the tire as an example: "Depending on the available data, the tire model can be easily generated with Pacejka or Tydex."
The virtual and real FT2008 keep taking form. The simulation with CarMaker will continuously accompany the vehicle development and will be playing an important role in the intended development and calibration of ABS and traction control.
IPG wishes the students from FaSTTUBe a lot of success with the realisation of their plans and is already very curious about the prospective FT2008!
