Team Veloce Racing

January 2015 – May 2015
Academic Group Project

I joined the team as Junior Engineer – Vehicle Dynamics and over the years have worked as Chief Technical Engineer, Captain and Driver.

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Team Captain

As an administrator, my job was to take decisions that will first create better team and then create a better performing car which will help win trophies.

During my tenure as captain, I made following team contribution to:

Change in team structure and hierarchy.
Budget management and reducing recurring costs.

Following decisions were taken by subsystem heads and me.

Develop our own chassis manufacturing jig. (saves long term cost)

Setup in-house aerodynamic elements manufacturing facility. (saves long term cost)

Switch from R13 to R10 sized tires. (Weight reduction and and reduction in allied costs)

Switch from Yamaha 600cc engine to KTM 390 cc engine keeping in mind budget, recurring cost and technical constraints

Purchase tire data and establish a team for data analysis.

Chief Technical Engineer

Design Goals

Low mass, Yaw inertia, CG height
Minimize Compliance
Reliability
Making car Responsive
Skidpad Time less than 5.3 secs.
Target events Autocross and Endurance
Tune for balance and grip
Contact, Comfort, Control
Tire Selection

Vehicle dynamics

Tire Selection

Selection of Rim size based on available budget, weight constraints, technical constraints.

Selection of suitable tire compound R25B or LC0 based on tire data.

Tire Modelling

Data sorting in MATLAB to find variation of Forces and moments generated by tire in contact with road.

Finding Coefficients of Magic Formula (Pajecka Tire Model)

Dimensions

Selection of Trackwidth and Wheel Based to minimize Yaw Inertia and Optimize lateral and longitudinal weight transfer.

Suspension geometry

Kinematic geometry. Iterations to keep camber variation within limit to maximize tire grip while cornering.

Spring stiffness iterated to balance correct Ride Frequency, Static Compression, Rolling Stiffness.

Selection of Kingpin and Caster angle according to steering inputs such as steering effort and driver feedback.

Design of Anti-Roll Bar to provide required Roll stiffness.

Wheel Assembly

The above diagram helps to visualize the transmission of force from ground to vehicle chassis as well as tolerance stack up and part criticality.

Parts designed in Catia V5 and Solidworks
Designing of wheel assembly requires inputs from Steering, Brakes and Suspension subsystems as well as manufacturing vendor.
Parts were designed keeping in mind endurance limit of Aluminium.
Critical Considerations: Bearing Selection, Manufacturing Cost, Raw Material cost, Material Procurement Time and Manufacturing Time.
Chamfer for reducing stress concentration.

Manufacturing Jig

Problem

Yearly budget constraint.
Chassis extremely important.
Distortion due to welding.
Time
Building from base to top.
No proper referencing for vertical tubes.

Solution

1.Wood

Inaccurate
High assembly setup time
Modular jig
Difficult to modify
High manufacturing time

2. Milled steel blocks

High fixed cost
High variable ost
Less inaccuracies only in base frame structure
Less Distortion
Difficult to modify
Vertical Alignment difficult

3. Aluminium Extrusion

High fixed cost
Low variable cost
Easy to assemble
Low setup time
Easy to setup
Easy to modify
Reduction in manufacturing time
Reduction in distortion

Jig

We decided to go with jigs made from Aluminium extrusions and Laser cut MS plates to place the notched AISI 1018 steel pipes for welding.

Inhouse Aerodynamics Element Facility

Material

Mold Material: Styrofoam.

Styrofoam stuck together using glue or purchased as a whole block.

Part Material: FRP/CFRP.

Available in rolls or sheets.

Manufacturing

Milling or Hot wire cutting to give shape to the molds from raw material styrofoam block.

Resin used to glue different layers of CFRP sheets.

Air drying process used based on available resources and budget.

Advantages

Moving from FRP to CFRP led to weight reduction approximately 61%.

Developing aerodynamics elements in house saved cost by 40% – 50%.