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Ricardo Visit : Imperial Racing

A great time was had by all when a group from the Imperial Racing Team, accompanied by Staff  Technical Director Dan Plant, spent a stimulating and informative afternoon at Ricardo’s Shoreham facility. 

For those of you who do not know Ricardo are one of the worlds leading automotive consultancies they are committed to providing engineering solutions to the world’s growing energy issues as a leading provider of product innovation, technology, engineering and strategic consulting. Ricardo is a global company with facilities in UK, Germany and Detroit.

 Penultimate and Final year Mechanical Engineering students attended from Imperial Racing, entering Ricardo thorough there very impressive new entrance area and museum.  Students where already engaged by the impressive show machinery in the area, we were ushered through to a meeting room, the tour of the facility and Museum was yet to come.

Dave Greenwood who is Project Director of  Advanced Technology Group for Ricardo UK, started off an open session off with a brief overview of Ricardo’s extensive areas of research. We were surprise at just how many areas of excellence Ricardo work in, not only are they experts in hybrid automotive programs, they also build the gear boxes for the fastest car in the world, the Bugatti Veyron. They also help British earth moving experts JCB attain the Diesel World Speed Record, what ever the project, Ricardo complete it to a very high standard.

We also learned about many of there research programs, I personally was very interested in there Blue Sky Development pProgram, and methodologies for internally screening development, to stay ahead of the curve. They have developed some intriguing internal tools for ranking new work programs, always a very difficult task for a Design Engineer.

Ricardo has developed much of its own software for internal and external use, Ricardo support Imperial College Students with Ricardo Wave Simulation software.

A free form question and answer session followed involving 5 Ricardo Experts. There was something for everyone, from Vehicle Dynamics, Performance Engines, Hybrid Systems and Battery Management and Recruitment. Imperial students form Racing Green, TTxGP  and Imperial Racing all relished this opportunity. After two hours students had learned a great deal form the Ricardo experts, many asked if they could have more time, and suggested that we extend this piece of the visit in the future.

Students left this session adorned with flip chart notes and diagrams. All in all a great success, many realised that they still have a great deal to learn from the experts always a good experience, and to the same  extent what Formula Student is all about. The merits of begin in such a FS program baud well with the Ricardo recruitment.
I had a very enjoyable conversation with the David, debating the future of automotive transit and the future possibilities of a truly autonomous vehicle. Let’s just say that Ricardo is working on some very exciting Research and Development programs!

We were then treated to an indepth tour of there facility, this included a trip around there Museum, a tour of there excellent Dynamic Dynamometer testing and calibration cells, they control centres of which would not be out of place in for a shuttle launch.  We then saw the test area for compete cars, and the equipment that goes into running controlled emission tests.
Dynamic cells at Ricardo can run a complete emission run, complete with human driver while emissions are captured to a few parts per million, and analysed by there on site chemical lab.

Lastly we were treaded to a visit to there Full Vehicle isobaric chamber. Simply this is a room that absorbs all noise and vibration, allowing the cars to get the feeling of total sensory deprivation; it’s a strange experience that you would not expect unless you have been in such a chamber.  If you have a stressed out car, a turn in the chamber would clam its nerves, rather like being in an isolation tank.

Finally there was a brief opportunity for current students to meet former Imperial College Formula Student Engineers, that now working at Ricardo. Imperial College Students dreamed of having access to such facilities, so they could test there Vehicles without leaving college, before Race day.

 The visit, following on from the highly successful IC Racing Legends day last December, was organized by the Department’s Operations Manager, Tim Venables, and is one of a planned series of activities in preparation for the Formula Student competition at Silverstone this Summer.’ 

Dan Plant.

Project Name: Forced Induction

Members: Michael Ridge, Kiran Lal, Ian Langley, Usman Qureshi, Patrick Heugh

Our project involves designing an alternative intake system to the naturally aspirated project, with the aim of producing more power to increase the cars performance in events such as the sprint. The initial stages of the project involved researching the different methods available to create a forced induction system, with the possibility of using an electrical compressor to provide the desired increase in pressure.

With the two year project in mind, a design for a system involving two electrical superchargers was created by the team, with the aim of making and testing the system next year. This was due to the availability of the electrical compressors. Another design using a Lysholm screw mechanical compressor was then designed to test this year, with the aim of giving us an impression of how beneficial a forced induction system could be, in comparison to the naturally aspirated design. The production of both systems is similar and will involve using carbon fibre plumbing, with reinforced samco hosing to provide bends. The plenum will involve using rapid prototyping to achieve the complex geometry

Driver Environment

Our group consists of project leader Richard Collins, along with Alex Huntley, Dipten Patel and Ahsen Kahn. The project our group is tasked with is that of the cockpit and driver ergonomics. We were tasked with designing and manufacturing specific parts for the cockpit of the formula student car, namely the pedal box, steering wheel, quick release mechanism and seat.The pedal box has taken on a design resembling karting pedals, i.e. a cantilever style design as opposed to a flat faced pedal. This is due to the much simpler mechanism for fixing the pedals to the chassis, along with a need for fewer parts and overall reduced complexity.

The seat has been designed to be as simple as possible, being made from polyurethane with an aluminium skin for support. The final steering wheel design is a composite structure, using carbon fibre to create the shape of the wheel, but balsa wood inserts to increase the thickness of the handles and as such make the wheel more comfortable. The quick release mechanism being designed uses a hook to hold the sheel to the steering column on the front face of the wheel. An in-house manufactured release mechanism would ultimately prove cheaper (using this design) than purchasing one, provided that the hand made product was manufactured to sufficiently high tolerances.

Prior concepts included using two external and removable pins to hold the wheel in place, although this proved extremely complex to manufacture. As an overall project, integration with the whole team is extremely important.

All of the components have specific requirements placed on them by other parts of the car, such as the steering mechanism (steering wheel) or braking system (pedal box). Also, every component must fit within the chassis comfortably and allow the driver to use them with ease. This means that constant discussion is needed in order to ensure there are no clashes for space with parts from two different systems, and all parts are free to operate effectively.

Fuel Delivery System

With the major focus of this year’s car being weight minimisation, the primary fuel tank will be constructed from carbon fibre, with a reserve b-part being made from mild steel.

Baffling comes in the form of fins protruding over the edge of a centrally-located sump containing the fuel pump, which is taken as a complete assembly directly from an Aprilia RXV 5.5.

Transmission:

The transmission project includes Davide Brechot, Edouard Desclaux, Alexandre Desneufbourgs, Jordan Michali and Henri Sartorius.

The aim of this project is to design the transmission of the car, by this it is meant to find a suitable way to transmit the power of the engine to the rear axle (to the wheels). Efficiency and lightweight of the whole assembly are crucial as these are the key to performance. The first approach was to consider all the means of transmission: belts, chains, shaft, or gear drives with a final conclusion that chains fit the best with the project of the IC06 car if cost, efficiency, practicality are considered. Suitable mountings for a “hanging” differential will be made in CNC, they also include a tensioning system for the chain.

Another major part of the transmission work is the design and make of a suitable way to change gears, the criterions are lightweight and speed. A simple lever placed in the cockpit within easy reach for the hand will be connected to a suitable push pull cable and a gear linkage will be placed on the other end on the engine.

Shocks and Dampers

After Initial optimism surrounding the use of air shocks, these have been discounted due to inappropriate damping characteristics constituting too much of a compromise for any weight advantages.

The actuation method for the dampers has been designed, achieving the desired motion ratios, allowing the use of pull-rods at both the front and rear of the car. Integration of the rockers and the chassis is complete and a suitable package in terms of suspension performance and chassis stiffness has been accomplished

The desired damping profile has been specified from simulation and modelling techniques, leading to excellent matching with dyno data obtained for the specified Ohlins TTX 25 FSAE damper.

Exhaust and Cooling system (Manthan Pravin, Samir Patel, Dinachi Onuzo and Ajay Rameshchandra)

Exhaust

For exhaust system, the main challenge was to design the whole exhaust system in a restricted space on SolidWorks with the right critical length of exhaust manifold to optimise the engine performance as well as issues of manufacturing the exhaust.

The two exhaust manifold will be externally manufactured whereas the collector and the collector joiner will be bought as a standard part. Moreover, the exhaust is already available.

Cooling

For the cooling system, the main challenge was getting rid of excess heat to maintain the engine at its optimum operating conditions. We considered the benefits of electric pumps over mechanical ones, which reduce the power output to the car. After deciding on an electric pump, we decided to also use a controller, which regulates the pump flow rate to ensure the right amount of heat is being dissipated.

For this section of the project, the only parts that will be manufactured are brackets to hold the radiators in place against the body of the car.

In general, the cooling and exhaust systems have the potential to improve the car’s performance significantly by optimising their individual performances.

Naturally Aspirated Engine Intake

Simran Dhadda, Vladimir Kostadinov, Felix Prettejohn, Joseph Taylor and Adam Seward.

CONCEPTS THOUGHT ABOUT

Our project definition requires us to produce a full naturally aspirated intake system comprising of an air filter, throttle, restrictor and plenum which needs to be as light as possible with maximal power output whilst still complying with the FSAE rules. This has allowed us to consider solutions such as spherical, barrel and rectangular shaped plenum and variable runners to maximise power and lightweight materials such as carbon fibre, magnesium alloy and clear polycarbonate.

CHOSEN DESIGN

Our chosen design consists of a barrel shaped plenum with variable length carbon fibre intake runners. We’ve also concentrated on a ball shaped throttle valve to minimise airflow disturbance at full throttle and a smooth expansion past the restrictor. This design has allowed us to satisfy our brief whilst leaving as much versatility as possible.

MANUFACTURE

The ball valve throttle will be milled from aluminium, the restrictor expansion from carbon fibre wrapped around an aluminium mould, the top half of the plenum from clear polycarbonate and the bottom from carbon fibre along with carbon fibre runners.

TEAM INTEGRATION

We have integrated our project and worked side by side with a number of groups. By being the first to model the engine successfully on Ricardo Wave we’ve subsequently assisted our colleagues from the exhaust and supercharger with our experience. Similarly we’ve integrated our calculations with that of the transmission group and worked closely with the chassis group to ensure out packaging is possible.

3M Suspension

Our group project is to design, make and test the suspension components for IC-06. Our group members are Huang Ming Chong, Jun Yee Chua, Poh Shen Tan, Joel Tan and Lilian Tan. The first choice we had to make was whether we were going to use steel or carbon fibre for the suspension a-arms. Concept sketches and calculations were made and the many advantages of carbon fibre outweighed the advantages of using steel. The apexes and many other components will be CNC-ed and finished by hand and the carbon fibre tubes can be easily cut by hand. Work will then continue in the department’s adhesive lab to bond the components together. We are working closely with Kristian, Karl and Henry to ensure our design will fit in with theirs.