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Final project
Posted: 22 Aug 2004, 20:11
by Rafael de Oliveira
Hello guys
I am starting to work in my final project to my graduation in mechanical engineering and I need some help. I am doing a project of an F1 car an I need a list of computer programs used by the teams and the mathematical formulas used by the engineers. Somebody have any idea where I can found this kind of thing.
Sorry about my poor english
Cheers

Posted: 22 Aug 2004, 20:39
by Monstrobolaxa
You're english isn't that bad
About the programs....what kind of project are you doing? a complete car? or only a wing or a nose cone?
About the design part you can try CATIA (most teams use it).
About the formulas....well....they use hundreds if not thousands of them...so the best thing is to look them up in engineering books. But these formulas also depend on the project you are doing....if it's in material design, or aerodynamics, or suspension design, etc
Humm...I've been also thinking about my graduation project and at first I had the idea of designing the whole car (only aerodynamicly) but talking to the projects coordenator he told me that if I had the time to design a nose cone it was already good. Usually gradutation projects have to be quite good and you have to analyse all aspects of it....and when drawing a whole car it is quite complicated and takes a whole long time....so first think if it would be better to design a complete car and have a mediocre project, or if would be a better idea to develop a new kind of flip up (or something) but having a VERY GOOD project.
Posted: 22 Aug 2004, 21:01
by Rafael de Oliveira
I pretend do a project of the entire car, I am starting the project now because I know how dificult is project a Formula 1 car. I am in the second year in the college and i want to start now to have a plenty of time and do a good project. I know some good book and internet wich could help me ?
Cheers
Posted: 22 Aug 2004, 22:00
by Monstrobolaxa
Well I'm also in the second year and starting my project...mine is basicly on aerodynamics! for this as an introduction to racecar aerodynamics I'm using "Racecar Aerodynamics" by J. Katz. On other subjects you can go to amazon and look up: vehicle dynamics, race car suspension, race car composites, race car brakes, etc....there are quite a few books on these subjects.
Posted: 23 Aug 2004, 10:44
by marcush.
hm...the whole car???In´t it a little underestimating of the task ahead?
If you leave out Engine and Transmission and go very deep into assumptions you might get close to a completed car in drawings.But remember you don´t just have to draw it you have to bring forward lots of ideas and make them work together.
How big is the engineering /designing side of a F1 Team to be able to create a new car each year.And remember they have a bunch of data from previous years,so it´s not starting from nothing as you plan.
For one Person a Nosecone or something like a front suspension is really work enough,unless youre content with being sketchy at best.
Posted: 23 Aug 2004, 13:41
by bernard
Just out of curiosity... how can you design just the nosecone? I mean, you don't have any info on the rest of the car, how do you make it "good"? You don't know the frontwing, the suspension or the rest of the car, so you can't make it work with the rest of the car. So do you just make it as aero effective as possible... or do you design it in to an existing car? If so then making a better one than the team has with its phenomenal budget and staff and skill made is pretty close to impossible, at least for a second year student.

No dissing, just wondering.
Also, do you have to take weight and safety issues into regard, or is it just a design project?
Posted: 23 Aug 2004, 21:40
by Monstrobolaxa
Well in our case we don't have to count with the safety issue we just have to make the project scientificly good (with good performance)! For example if you develop/design a nose cone it can be done without the car behind it you can design a standard nose cone (that will be the base line) and develop one that is better in some way when compared with the baseline one....for example it might have less drag then the baseline one...and might have a lower CL. Budget wise my university pays for everything and I will have to spend around 5 to 10 hours in the windtunnel (which my univer does have).
So....it's only a design project...and you do not have to make it a car friendly part....it just has to work on it's own....but if you study it and apply it to the car you miht have extra points on your grade.
Posted: 24 Aug 2004, 13:16
by Guest
Don't be discouraged by this, but don't even attempt a whole car. Because there are so many different sub-systems, you will never get to analyse anything in any useful detail if you try to finish the whole car.
When I was doing my final year engineering project, we built a Mini Baja, which is a lot simpler than an F1 car. I personally spent about 700 hours working on the project over a 4 month period. There were 5 of us in the group so all told it took a little less than 3500 man hours to successfully complete the project.
As you've been told already, just pick one specific part and do a thorough, in depth analysis of it. The skills you learn in doing detailed analysis and design will be applicable to the rest of the car, if you had enough time to do it. Also, see if you can convince some classmates to do the same and look at other parts of the car. Then try to get everything to fit together - which is where the real engineering art comes into play.
BEst of luck with your project.
Posted: 28 Aug 2004, 05:35
by Rafael de Oliveira
Hello Guys
Somebody have the list of telemetry sensors in the F1 car ?
About the project, the major objective is to learn how is an F1 car in all aspects. Somebody have any informations about Mini Baja cars.
Cheers
Posted: 28 Aug 2004, 06:41
by Monstrobolaxa
....that will be a long list....there are hundreds of sensors!
pedal positions, dampers, springs, wheel speed, brake fluid temp, oil temp, water temp, trans temp, exaust sensor (Lambda), air sensor, steering sensor, electrical system "sensors", aero sensores, stress sensors, etc (and in all these catagories you can have a whole lot of other sub categories)...the list can be endless!
About the mini baja....try going to the SAE web site...it is somewhere in there!
final project
Posted: 29 Aug 2004, 11:53
by MRE
For me,you should focus on one system that you think is the best compromise between calculations,design and engineering solutions aplications. For example,you can analyzing the behaviour of the car during attacking the difference corner form with variable suspension set-up. From the data, you can design the new suspensions systems which integreted with electronics sensor to improved the balance of the car during cornering. From this,you can related that system to and f1 car. Just my simple idea for your project.

Posted: 11 Oct 2004, 09:22
by cyshim1985
superjunior hear. Just register today after one week i get this website.
I am a first year undergraduate automotive student at University of Technology, Malaysia.
i just finish my autocad project to draw a disc brake. Now planing to do something on CAD(computer asistant design) program. I have an idea on F1. The other CAD which use in F1 in SOLID EDGE. If i am right, Jaguar is using this CAD. You can seek for more information at
http://www.solidedge.com. The other is solidwork.(
http://www.solidworks.com) It includede
(copy from solidworks)
--Analysis Tools
Optimize product designs by using SolidWorks analysis tools to simulate real-world conditions and test multiple "what if" scenarios.
COSMOSWorks®
COSMOSWorks is a powerful, easy-to-use design analysis and optimization software fully embedded within SolidWorks® software. COSMOSWorks is ideal for engineers who need analysis but are not specialists in finite element analysis.
COSMOSMotion™
COSMOSMotion is a complete motion simulation and kinematics package fully embedded within SolidWorks software.
COSMOSFloWorks™
Designed for engineers who are not necessarily specialists in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), COSMOSFloWorks redefines fluid flow analysis with robust capabilities normally found in high-end CFD programs.
-- end
i am not statisfy better it(solidworks) is suitable for desiging F1 or not. I get respond that it is easy to use.
It just a superjunior idea. Hopefully will get reply from senior about this idea.
thanks and sorry for any grammar mistake.
To Rafael de Oliveira, may i learn something from you later on about designing a F1 car? Or i may start to do something after my final at the end of this week.
Cooling duct
Posted: 20 Nov 2004, 21:44
by minirose
hello!
Im about a quater of the way through my final yr project for my Automotive Engineering degree. I really need a CFD analysis of a generic Formula 1 cooling duct complete with heat exchangers for my project. Does anyone kno where I can find such a thing
thanx
mini 
Posted: 27 Feb 2005, 16:52
by Yaquiya
Hi guys!
I'm also interested in doing a final research project focused in aerodinyamics in F1, but the problem is i am at 2ºhigh school and don't have any high or deep knowledge about F1 (but it really interests me!:D). I did like to try to design a car and study diferent aspects but i've read it is too dificault

Moreover, i'm not english so my english is not as high as it should be if i should like to understand everything

I hope you help me when i need to interprete all the dates
