{"id":19263,"date":"2024-05-21T09:43:17","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T07:43:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/?p=19263"},"modified":"2024-08-15T11:33:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T09:33:33","slug":"formula-student-world-record-compact-fan-power-to-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mag.ebmpapst.com\/en\/allgemein\/formula-student-world-record-compact-fan-power-to-ground_19263\/","title":{"rendered":"Formula Student: World record in seconds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00e9bastien Cavedon is not getting much sleep at the moment. Free time is also in short supply, as he is working for the Bern Racing Team in parallel with his studies. But when the 23-year-old talks about his work with the team, there is no sign of fatigue. Cavedon is CEO of the Formula Student Team that the Bern Univer\u00adsity of Applied Sciences is entering in the Formula Student compe\u00adti\u00adtion. In the compe\u00adti\u00adtion, students develop and build single-seater racing cars with elec\u00adtric drives and compete against teams from all over the world. At the end, the jury not only judges the car, but also the sales concept in terms of design, cost plan\u00adning and sales presen\u00adta\u00adtion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A light\u00adning bolt from Bern<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cavedon is in his third year studying auto\u00admo\u00adtive engi\u00adneering in Bern, and is passionate about motor racing. So he has been part of the student Bern Racing Team since the start of his degree. \u201cIt\u2019s all very time-consuming, but we learn a lot from it. For example, how we work together as a team and how we imple\u00adment a project from start to finish,\u201d he says. His favorite phase is currently under way: vehicle parts that indus\u00adtrial part\u00adners have manu\u00adfac\u00adtured for the students are grad\u00adu\u00adally arriving in the work\u00adshop and the construc\u00adtion of \u201cSajetta\u201d is starting.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The exciting assembly phase begins in Bern: Will all the parts fit as planned? (Photo | Bern Racing Team)<\/p><\/div>\n

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The ETH racing car is also taking shape in Zurich. (Photo | AMZ Racing)<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is what the students have chris\u00adtened the vehicle for the 2023\/24 season \u2013 Sajetta means light\u00adning in the local Rhaeto-Romanic dialect. \u201cThe assembly is always a special moment for me. Until now, we\u2019ve only seen the racing car on digital design draw\u00adings, but now we\u2019re bringing it to life.\u201d With Sajetta, the team is focusing on keeping the weight as low as possible. \u201cWith the last car, we paid atten\u00adtion to reli\u00ada\u00adbility, this time we want to make it as light as possible on this basis.\u201d As CEO, Cavedon is less involved in the design of the car this season and is concen\u00adtrating on spon\u00adsor\u00adship instead. He is there\u00adfore not only respon\u00adsible of orga\u00adnizing and managing the whole project, but also presenting the project to many compa\u00adnies in order to obtain the neces\u00adsary finan\u00adcial and tech\u00adnical support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe assembly is always a special moment for me. Until now, we\u2019ve only seen the racing car on digital design draw\u00adings, but now we\u2019re bringing it to life.\u201d<\/p>\nS\u00e9bastien Cavedon, CEO Bern Racing Team<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Strong partner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a tech\u00adnical sponsor, ebm-papst has been supporting the students with its prod\u00aducts for around ten years. In the current vehicle, 5 EC fans are respon\u00adsible for cooling the high-voltage vehicle battery. The axial fans force air into the battery, which then flows through the entire system to cool the cells. \u201cThe fans are extremely impor\u00adtant to us because the racing events take place in summer and \u2013 espe\u00adcially in combi\u00adna\u00adtion with the high power \u2013 it can get really hot. They make sure that our battery doesn\u2019t over\u00adheat,\u201d explains Cavedon. \u201cWe don\u2019t have much instal\u00adla\u00adtion space in the vehicle and our battery is very small. The compact size of the fans is just perfect,\u201d says the aspiring engi\u00adneer. \u201cWe are very happy with the quality and reli\u00ada\u00adbility of ebm-papst\u2019s prod\u00aducts and the air flow they deliver. They also work effi\u00adciently and, most impor\u00adtantly, reli\u00adably.\u201d When it came to selecting the compo\u00adnents, the team quickly found what they were looking for in the data\u00adbase. \u201cWe didn\u2019t need any tech\u00adnical support from ebm-papst for this, but we know that we can always fall back on it, if neces\u00adsary,\u201d Cavedon explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Five EC fans from ebm-papst cool the high-voltage vehicle battery of \u201cSajetta\u201d, the racing car of the Bernese students. (Rendering | Bern Racing Team)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sven Haug cools the Vehicle Control Unit with an EC fan from ebm-papst. (Photo | Sven Haug)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Learning new skills<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

100 kilo\u00adme\u00adters away, Sven Haug is also in the middle of the manu\u00adfac\u00adturing phase. The 23-year-old is in his fifth semester of mechan\u00adical engi\u00adneering at ETH in Zurich. He chose Formula Student as his main project and has been part of the AMZ racing team since September 2023. He explains what moti\u00advates him: \u201cWe do rela\u00adtively little program\u00adming in our studies and we don\u2019t do much elec\u00adtrical engi\u00adneering either. So being part of this team is a great add-on because I can learn a lot in these areas in partic\u00adular.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This racing season, he is respon\u00adsible for the vehicle control unit, or VCU for short. \u201cThis is the computer that connects the entire vehicle, i.e. it routes all the sensors and signals correctly, sends the instruc\u00adtions for the fans, and regu\u00adlates how much engine torque should be applied,\u201d explains Haug. The coming weeks will show whether every\u00adthing is working as planned. Like Cavedon, he says: \u201cThe assembly phase is actu\u00adally the most enjoy\u00adable phase. On the elec\u00adtrical engi\u00adneering side, I work with the people respon\u00adsible for the circuit board to see whether their circuits work, whether our sensors can be set correctly and how we need to para\u00adme\u00adterize them. Then we can pre-cali\u00adbrate and install every\u00adthing in the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe partic\u00adu\u00adlarly like the reli\u00ada\u00adbility of the fans. They are extremely robust and you need some\u00adthing reli\u00adable, espe\u00adcially for a car that is assem\u00adbled by students them\u00adselves.\u201d<\/p>\nSven Haug, Vehicle Control Unit, AMZ Racing<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Using nega\u00adtive pres\u00adsure to set the world record<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ETH team\u2019s vehi\u00adcles tradi\u00adtion\u00adally bear the name of a Swiss moun\u00adtain. This season, the students will be competing with \u201cdufour\u201d. A new feature is its hybrid suspen\u00adsion, in other words a suspen\u00adsion that works mechan\u00adi\u00adcally and pneu\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcally. This time too, the students are relying on what is known as the \u2018power-to-ground\u2019 effect. The racing team used this in their previous vehicle, \u201cMythen WR\u201d, accel\u00ader\u00adating the elec\u00adtric vehicle from 0 to 100 km\/h in less than a second: a world record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve this, two high-perfor\u00admance fans in the record-breaking vehicle suck the air out from under the vehicle, creating a vacuum that allows the vehicle to cling tightly to the ground and deliver the maximum trans\u00admit\u00adtable force to the road. The high intake pres\u00adsure is gener\u00adated by two DiaForce compact fans from ebm-papst. The conical cover plate of the fan rotates in tandem, so that the outlet opening is larger than the intake opening and the air flows around the fan in a radial and axial direc\u00adtion, enabling the high intake pres\u00adsure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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