F1 in Schools Help | XS

[xcess96]

Hello to all the forum members and if you are taking your time to read this topic then I would really like to thank you for your time.

I am about to compete in the F1 in Schools challenge so I started this thread to seek valuable input. From what I have studied from this forum, these are the things I have learnt :

1) This a dragster race not formula so downward force is not much an importance.
2) Try to reduce the surface area of the car as little as possible.
3) Design based on actual laws and not theories.
4) Car doesn't have to look fancy.
5) Reduce the wing to as minimal as possible.
6) Run CFD tests and properly evaluate them before proceeding.
7) Know why and what causes the changes of the result.
Try to simulate most of the parts,environment, and condition as realistically as possible.
9) Shileren photography can show a visual interpretation.
10) The pressure should have the least amount of changes when flowing through the car.
11) Changing the direction of the flow comes with a penalty of drag
12) If possible reducement of friction should be produced from the tether line and the screw eye.
13) Try to channel the output velocity of gas of the canister.
14) The car should have some lift.
15) By making sure the car runs on a straight line instead of swaying can help in time reduction.
16) Front wing of the car should be reinforced to withstand the sudden deceleration.
17) Better the bearings the better the car will accelerate.
18) Reduce the wake when exiting the car.

Those are the key tips that I have learnt from his forum and thank you guys for that. Now my questions would be the following:
1) should the tyres be far apart from each other or closer
2) should the tether guides be far apart or closer
3) I am currently using Solid Edge as I have been working with it for about a year now and I personally feel it is better than Solidworks as it is easier to navigate and the documentation is solid as well as the amount of tutorials I can find. So, I have heard of Catia this forum and I would like to ask you guys why Catia is better (advantages) and how powerful is it ? Note : I don't mind learning through the steps and even though it is hard.
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[xcess96]

Technical Regulations
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A0


A1

[flynfrog]

It looks like you are off to a great start there.

The answers to your questions are as always it depends.

The wheel base (distance between axles) there is little to lose here by making these as far apart as reasonable. You will gain some stability.

The Track width (how far apart the wheels on the same axle are) You can cut your drag and frontal area by moving these closer together at the expense of stability.

The guides should be as far apart as you can get them this will help keep the car going in a straite line.

FOr this project Solidworks, solid edge, inventor. Wold be better choices they are easier to learn and use. You dont want to waste valuable design time learning a cad package. Catia is incredibly powerful but completely unneeded for this project.

[variante]

before you go on with your aero research, let me say that, having seen the slow motion of some of those races, it looks like the mechanical side of those cars is way more important than their aerodynamics. It looked like the cars, when starting, were jumping quite a lot and thus were dissipating part of their thrust directing it on a non parallel direction to the track, and were sometimes increasing the frinction on the front axle by directing the thrust vector downward and lifting the back. And somethimes they were so unstable that they dissipated an enormous amount of energy on the walls of the track.
What i'm trying to tell you is that you should first have an idea of the mechanical aspect of the car (where to put the jet, what wheelbase to use,...) and only then build around the aerodynamic package.
Havin said that, i have no direct experience with f1 in schools, so...

[Jersey Tom]

I would second sticking with something like Solidworks or Inventor, or really whatever's available through your skill. Learning Solidworks or Inventor are generally good moves in that they are fairly wide spread at university and in industry. I would think Solid Edge has a good bit less market share. Then again, once you get a good handle on one 3d parametric solid modeling package, learning others is much more straight forward.

CATIA is overkill. Powerful yes, expensive yes, unnecessary for this project yes.

[xcess96]

variante : Ah, yes that is very true after watching some slow motion videos from the other teams I have come with the same conclusion.

Jersey Tom : Thanks for the input, I really had to clarify this.

flynfrog : Thank you very much for pointing the stability issue.

Q1 | Front View

My next question is that if i choose to place the tyre at location A which is exactly situated vertically along the front end of the canister would it be an optimum position or if I place it somewhere else for example location B, would it have the same result

[flynfrog]

Not sure of the rules but I would try to get the axle back as far as possible to minimize the lever arm that the canister has on the car.