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CS KA Racing Fin

The KA-RaceIng team from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology uses HyperWorks software to optimize the design of their Formula Student racing car. They aimed to combine a tubular steel frame in the rear with a carbon fiber monocoque to improve maintainability while keeping weight low. Using OptiStruct for structural optimization of both materials, they were able to compensate for the additional weight of steel. This allowed them to achieve similar weight to the previous all-carbon design while gaining better manufacturability and maintenance. As a result, the team was very successful in the 2011 season, finishing in the top ten of every race.

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2K views2 pages

CS KA Racing Fin

The KA-RaceIng team from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology uses HyperWorks software to optimize the design of their Formula Student racing car. They aimed to combine a tubular steel frame in the rear with a carbon fiber monocoque to improve maintainability while keeping weight low. Using OptiStruct for structural optimization of both materials, they were able to compensate for the additional weight of steel. This allowed them to achieve similar weight to the previous all-carbon design while gaining better manufacturability and maintenance. As a result, the team was very successful in the 2011 season, finishing in the top ten of every race.

Uploaded by

AltairKorea
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Case Study

A Platform for Innovation


TM

Faster, better, lighter HyperWorks Helps Formula Student Team to Reach Top Ten
Overview
The KA-RaceIng team is the Formula Student Racing Team of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Each year the team members develop, design, and manufacture a racing car that competes with 270 teams from all over the world at the Formula Student competition. While working in the KA-RaceIng Team, students gain valuable experience and engineering skills. Building a race car within 6 months with limited resources sets the need for Computer Aided Engineering tools to optimize components and the vehicle frame prior to production. A common design goal is to reach a minimum weight of the vehicle while keeping a high stiffness. Furthermore the production costs and maintenance effort during the races should be as low as possible. To reach these goals KA-RaceIng used HyperWorks.

Business Profile
The KA-RaceIng Team was founded in January 2006 by students of the University of Karlsruhe (TH). Only 14 months later they already presented their first Formula Student racing car in Karlsruhe. After a very successful season with their first car, the KIT2007, which made it to the top ten on the Formula Student Event in Hockenheim / Germany, the team achieved the Best Newcomer award at the competition in Germany and reached the 6th Place in the Formula ATA competition in Italy. For more information please refer to: KA.RaceIng // www.ka-raceing.de.

Thanks to the new chassis, the KA-RaceIng team was very successful during the 2011 season. The team reached two second places and finished every race in 2011 among the top ten.

Challenge
In 2011 the KA-RaceIng teams major goal was to improve the maintainability of its racing car. To get a better access to the engine and the suspensions, the concept of a hybrid vehicle frame was chosen. The team aimed to combine a tubular steel frame in the rear of the car with a CFK monocoque, thus replacing a pure CFK monocoque solution, which was used in the previous racing season. Since the steel of the tubular frame brings in additional weight, the challenge was to keep the overall weight on the same level while taking advantage of the combined solution in terms of maintainability during the race and low production costs. The major value of OptiStruct was for us that on the one hand we could optimize the KIT11 with respect to the given loads and on the other hand to make stress analysis to gain insights on how the loads would affect the KIT11. By using OptiStruct we received a chassis that was optimized regarding weight and stiffness and we learned a lot about the stresses that occur in a Formula Student Monoposto. Lucas Epperlein, KA.RaceIng

Torsion stiffness of the new chassis.

HyperWorks is a division of

A Platform for Innovation

TM

Solution
To combine the advantages of a CFK monocoque (lightweight and high stiffness) and a tubular steel frame (manufacturability and maintainability) the KA-RaceIng team conducted a structural optimization with OptiStruct on both, the steel and the composites parts of the chassis. This helped the team to compensate the additional weight brought in by the tubular steel frame. To optimize the composite structure three optimization phases have been applied. The first one, a free size optimization, defined the size and the shape of the patches in each fibre layer of the composite material. With the second optimization step, a size optimization, the team defined the thickness of the patches and finally determined the optimal layer sequences with a shuffling optimization. In the end the team could reach an almost similar weight of the combined CFK monocoque/ tubular steel frame chassis as the pure CFK solution from the previous year had. Additionally the new chassis offered a much better manufacturability and maintainability during the setup and the race itself.

Design goals are to reach a minimum weight while keeping stiffness high and production costs and maintenance as low as possible.

The first optimization step for the monocoque shows the shape of the composite patches in each material layer.

Results/Benefits
By using OptiStruct the KA-RaceIng team was able to improve their race car in terms of manufacturability, maintainability, and overall costs while keeping the weight on an acceptable level. Additionally the team was also able to handle all optimization work prior to the first real prototype and therefore saved on development time and testing effort. Thanks to the new chassis, the KA-RaceIng team was again very successful during the 2011 season. The team reached two second places and finished every race in 2011 among the top ten. HyperWorks and its optimization solution OptiStruct helped to: increase maintainability of the vehicle save time and costs save material and prototypes reach weight goals

Altair Engineering, Inc., World Headquarters: 1820 E. Big Beaver Rd., Troy, MI 48083-2031 USA Phone: +1.248.614.2400 Fax: +1.248.614.2411 www.altair.com [email protected]

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