FMBA Vehicle CFD Analysis

This slide show shows the CFD analysis of race car design, click image to see complete page. The analysis includes over 30 aerodynamic boundary designs, with boundary conditions including road and wheels modelled as moving surfaces with surface roughness. Conclusions indicate downforce, drag, and pitch moment at various speeds, as well as yaw moment at various yaw angles. A comparative study is included to estimate the upper limit of down force possible for a given planform area. The design for the study used a closed end wing-in-ground-effect model. Analysis was executed using ANSYS Workbench 14.0 with CFX.

Aircraft Door, Hinge Arm Analysis

The slide show presents the work flow for the design and analysis of a door hinge arm. The analysis includes defining motion constraints and part inertias, simulating motion and extracting critical loading conditions, and finally applying loads to calculate internal stresses. One design iteration is completed to reduce the weight of the hinge arm without impacting its structural performance. This analysis was executed using Solidworks.

Analysis

Presented here are examples of analyses of mechanical and electro-mechanical systems.

Electric Race Car Powertrain Analysis

Driver in loop powertrain analysis of an electric race car design incorporating components available from a specific supplier. Analysis includes concept CAD design and inertia calculation, complete physics modelling in rFactor, driver in loop track testing in rFactor, and powertrain performance analysis in Simulink. Conclusions include lap times for Montreal GP course, total number of laps for the given energy constraint, maximum acceleration, and many other race performance parameters.

FMBA Vehicle Structural Analysis

The slide show presents some of the work done as part of a finite element analysis of a car space frame. The goals of the study are:

Verify structural integrity in common crash scenarios
Reduce weight where possible
Reduce cost by using common material

The work involved calculating inputs for load cases, iterating through various levels of complexity for the finite element model, simulating multiple crash configurations, and modifying the FEM. Read more...

FMBA Vehicle Parametric Analysis

Driver in the loop analysis of the major parameters of a race car. Using a baseline vehicle model, major parameters are are adjusted significantly but within reason and the resulting laptime improvements are compared. The analysis looks at the following key parameters:

Weight
Engine Power
Down Force
Aerodynamic Drag

The analysis was completed using rFactor2.