Karlsruhe University Student team uses Simcenter FLOEFD to create Formula One race car prototype

“The simulation animations were very helpful for representing component construction methods to illustrate the problems and solutions for other team members.”

Hakan Yigit,Head of Engine and Drivetrain High Speed Karlsruhe

Engineering students at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany have participated in the Formula Student international design competition for the past few years. The competition allows students the chance to develop, build and test a small-scale Formula One™ prototype. Doing so in a relatively short time frame on top of their other studies and letting them learn first hand what it’s like to develop a real-life project.

Due to the short design time, they needed to be able to design light reliable components that would withstand a lot of stress. To compile the information necessary to develop the parts they used a PTC Creo™ software computer-aided design (CAD) model with the Siemens computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, Simcenter FLOEFD™. They trained with the software for two days and then created their own models.

“The tool was introduced in sample simulations tasks in the form of a tutorial,“ says Sall, who worked on cooling and lubrication for High Speed Karlsruhe. “Different tasks for different simulation parameters could be carried out. Afterwards, I could slowly work my way up to our problems. Working with Simcenter FLOEFD was very pleasant.”

To read more in depth about the Karlsruhe University Formula study click here.