MODELLING AND SIMULATION
Driving insight
ROBERT ROE LOOKS AT ADVANCES IN AUTOMOTIVE SIMULATION
In an intensively competitive market such as automotive engineering, companies must
fine-tune each component if they are to keep pace with their competition. To achieve this they have not only adopted simulation technology but also other tools such as virtual reality to help improve designs and reduce time to market. Engineers must constantly fine-tune
components to reduce cost or increase performance and these components must work in harmony with the entire design which today is achieved through the use of design and simulation software. Altair, a CAE software provider recently announced a collaboration with Iowa State University’s Formula SAE team to assist in
22 Scientific Computing World December 2017/January 2018
the design and race a formula style race car each year. Iowa State University’s Formula SAE
team consists of 40-plus active members who design, build, and test the race car to compete with approximately 80 teams representing seven different countries at the Formula Lincoln event, and with approximately 30 different teams at the Formula North event. Cyclone racing is currently ranked 4th in the United States and 14th in the world out of 550 teams. Most aspects of being a professional racing team are evaluated and judged, and the team operates largely from private sponsorship with support from Iowa State University. When designing their latest vehicle, CR22, one of the team’s goals was to reduce the weight of the vehicles rear aerodynamic wing. Nate Lenz, Cyclone Racing’s technical director at the time of the project commented ‘With last year’s car, the internal wing structure was very heavy, to the point that we would see
some very excessive roll, and a few times, even though the car was super-fast, we would find ourselves up on two wheels. Keeping that in mind, a huge goal with this year’s car was to reduce the weight of the entire wing package, while also ensuring that it was very strong and stiff.’
Optimising designs When the project to redesign the bracket mount for the rear wing package came up, Lenz decided to try Altair’s solidThinking Inspire software. ‘Knowing that the mount had to be extremely light, while also being as stiff as possible, it seemed like a perfect project to try Inspire.’ Once Lenz had become accustomed with the tool and its capabilities, the team created an initial design space for the brackets in an external CAD tool. ‘This particular beam was unique in that it had to stretch over a long distance, be high off the ground, and put under a bending load. The nice thing with it was that we were only constrained by the mounting
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