Work Experience with the HAN Formula Student (HFS) team

In September 2015 I was selected in the HAN formula team which was the university team competing in Formula student races. Formula Student Germany 2016 was the HAN formula team’s first event for which we, as a team started preparing for in September 2015 even though the event was in August 2016. Since we were a new team preparing for our first event we naturally had to overcome lots of obstacles. We sourced a used engine from a Yamaha R6 which satisfied the 600-cc capacity rule that the engine is allowed. Similarly, we sourced a lot of components from our sponsors who were helpful and understanding. Since we are a first-year team, we did not have a great budget and the sponsors helped a lot and gave us the tools and resources to turn our ideas into reality.

I joined the team as a steering engineer and we worked to research on different steering systems to choose for the car, eventually, after several choice table iterations, we decided on choosing rack and pinion steering for the car. We then experimented with different steering ratios, steering ratios are very different in formula cars as compared to normal on-road vehicles. We needed a steering ratio that was precise and did not require too much steering angle in sharp bends, as the formula student tracks are quite twisty and have a few short straights. After finding out the steering we set to deciding the Ackerman steering geometry. We chose Ackerman instead of Anti- Ackerman or Parallel because of the ease of fabrication, and to reduce front tire slippage.

After doing our research and putting forth the requirements we began to look for parts to source for the car. Since we were short on the budget we could not have a rack and pinion setup custom made. However, we did find one that suited just as well. We asked the manufacturer for the engineering drawing of all the parts and components so that we could design them on Solidworks and then mate the steering assembly to the chassis on Solidworks to see if any modifications were required to the chassis since we could not build a custom steering system.

After working out the necessary modifications to the chassis, the delegated tasks for the steering department were over and we waited for the suspension department to finish with the suspension design so that the steering and suspension geometry are finalised and then the required parts can be ordered. Instead of waiting on suspension department to finish their work I joined the suspension department in March 2016. There was a lot of work to be done in the department and they could use every helping hand they could get.

The suspension on our first car was an active suspension that was custom made and was supplied to us by a sponsor. The car featured a double wishbone suspension which wasn’t pushrod due to packaging constraints and cost constraints. The suspension team soon finished the suspension design and requested the fabrication companies to fabricate the required components for the suspension system. After that, we received the fabricated parts and started assembling the chassis. During the chassis assembly, we realised we had made a few mistakes during the designing stage as we realised that we needed a lot more plates and brackets to mount several components of the car. Due to this, the car kept getting heavier and heavier.

As the other departments completed the assembly of the car we neared testing days in June and July 2016. It was only during testing that the suspension team realised that our active suspension is not going to be of much use. This was because the vehicle weight given to the suspension supplier was given from the design models along with a safety margin. 

However, during the assembly and fabrication phase, a lot of weight was added onto the vehicle, which made the vehicle quite a bit heavier than was anticipated. Due to this added weight, the active suspension could not be adjusted and was fixed at the firmest setting to avoid body roll and pitch. Despite this setback, we continued to fix any issues with the car and prepare it better for the next tests.

We tested our car at the Valkenburg airfield in The Netherlands on separate track days. This put our car through its paces. And we could test the car and see how it performs and if there are any issues still. This also gave the drivers of team the opportunity to get used to the car and driving the car. After a few days of testing at Valkenburg and our drivers getting a few laps under their belt we were prepared to head to Formula Student Germany 2016 at Hockenheim.