UCD Formula Student (UCDFS) is Ireland’s first electric Formula Student team, aiming to use the experience from the previous two years in concept class to succeed in our first FS class since the re-establishment of the team in 2019. Bringing the car to life has been the priority this season, providing the opportunity for hands-on experience to team members. With climate change deadlines and targets approaching, we are also committed to being part of the solution by promoting sustainability through our design and manufacturing methods.
Our team comprises around 60 members from a range of backgrounds, including engineering, business, law, and architecture. Although Formula Student is predominantly an engineering competition, we seek team members from all across our university, because we’ve learned that there’s much more to running a Formula Student team than simply designing and building a car. Professional racing teams usually employ people to manage their finances, HR, media and marketing, and Formula Student is no different. In our case, the aforementioned are managed by our Operations team, while our Mechanical and Powertrain teams work on the car itself.
As an entry-level team, one of our main goals has been to get our car running out on the track, as this is where any team will learn the most about the strengths and weaknesses of their car’s design. With this in mind, we have designed the car to be as simple as possible to minimise the time and cost of its manufacturing and assembly. Our overall design philosophy places a major emphasis on reliability, simplicity, and cost-effectiveness. Our experience in concept class allowed us time to develop a strong design with these goals in mind, while also building on feedback from competition judges about more specific design improvements.
Based on our performance and design targets, we opted for a single-motor, chain-driven, rear-wheel drive setup. Our chassis was designed from scratch to accommodate our high-voltage accumulator and driver, and is constructed from AISI 1020 steel for its adequate strength and low cost. Like many other teams, we are utilising double wishbone suspension front and rear, with direct-acting front dampers and push rods on the rear.
The 2024 season saw several areas of our car being further developed based on what we had learned from last year’s Concept Class entry. In order to reduce weight we redesigned our suspension wishbones to use smaller diameter tubing and smaller rod ends whilst still having enough strength to safely withstand our maximum wheel loads. We also revised our steering wheel design to create more clearance for the driver’s hands and arms within the cockpit.
In addition, we designed new cooling ducts for our Tractive System Accumulator Container (TSAC) which would allow us to utilise passive cooling. The ducts went through several design iterations, each being tested using Solidworks Flow Simulation, to determine a shape that would keep the TSAC’s internal temperature at a safe level, even while being constrained by chassis members.
Our team has learned a huge amount this year about teamwork, project management and design. One of the biggest challenges for a team of this size is ensuring constant communication between all areas of the team, and this is something that we identified as an area for improvement at the beginning of last year. Communication within the team is vital to ensure compatibility between different systems of the car, but also to give everyone a better sense of their overall role in the project. This year showed us that strong communication not only makes the car come together more smoothly but also makes the project a lot more enjoyable.
As 2024 was our first time competing in FS Class, we were exploring unknown territory and we took a “learn by doing” approach to new aspects of the competition. While there’s lots of helpful information given online about the competition events and procedures, we found that there’s no substitute for first-hand experience. For example, experiencing first-hand what it’s like to transport, unload, assemble and tweak our car at Silverstone this year has allowed us to identify challenges and improve our strategy for next year.
Although we couldn’t finish our powertrain in time for Silverstone this year, we were still able to present most of our car to the scrutineers and have them guide us through their inspection process. This was one of the highlights from this year’s competition, because not only did we get to see how much of our car can pass, we also gained insight into how the rules are tested and what we need to look out for in the future.
We were also very grateful to RS for supporting us through the Build Fund this year. Using the fund, we were able to acquire new storage boxes and shelves, as well as a fresh supply of PPE for our workshop.
All in all, this year has given us a really positive foundation on which to complete the car and to hopefully put ourselves in a good position for the 2025 FSUK event.
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