Stefan Ruitenberg Design: 2018

Sunday, November 11, 2018

A very Special Radical RXC

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Hello there!

I just wanted to share some pics and a video of a very special Radical I saw at Silverstone. The ones that know me will know I have appreciated for Radical cars. Enjoy this awesome RXC.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

I like this image of the car side on. Shame I missed the front fender and splitter!

Here is a quick tour I did while in the pit lane. It sounds better in real life!

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

A nice engine shot I got. It has a modified Ford EcoBoost V6 3500cc 650bhp with two turbochargers.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Here we can see an overview of the backend. With a set of fully adjustable suspension with a neat inboard damper system. I like it a lot.

Saturday, November 10, 2018

Hello there!

Sorry for the radio silence, been very busy with my studies as well as our Formula Student Team, so not really had the time to get some content up on my blog. But I found some time for this, which was my first hand in hand experience with Race Engineering a car.

Last weekend I attended a band new Motorsport event at Silverstone, 'Motorsport Days', where I and SCU Motorsport built a racecar for the BMW 116i Trophy race series.

SCU Motorsport is going to be a brand new series for students who want to learn about Race Engineering and not necessarily design. The series will be made up 1-series BMWs competing in the 116i Trophy, with a single seater sprint series to go alongside it. I will reveal all at a later date.

Meanwhile, the guys and girls from SCU were able to strip out and prepare the BMW for racing. We even applied livery and safety items too. The only real job is the roll cage, which is under complete fabrication at the time of writing.

Out on the track, as the video shows, the car ran well and smooth, with Alan O'Neill at the wheel. When the car came in, all the tyre pressures were stable, and so the car went back out and was working well.

The main job is to change the balance, as the rear wanted to swap around on a couple of occasions so we will have to look at the data on that one. But apart from that, it was a very good diel in test session for us, as the car had new brakes and suspension that weekend.

If anyone wants to actively get involved, we are more than happy to help you with that. Email me on stefanruitenberg@outlook.com. But in the meantime, enjoy some photos from the event.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Radical Motorsport was out in force.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Ligier showed off its new styling for future LMP cars, based on a Ligier JS P3 chassis. More images soon.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

The Silverstone Wing. mega.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

This Audi TT had an awesome rear wing.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Part 1: Formula Student Front Wing Project

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Hello there!

Another year of University has passed, and so this means I can get on with some of my own personal design projects. As you may know, I am very interested in Aerodynamics, and so have set about designing and full aerodynamic package for a Formula Student race car in my spare time.

Being a student at Huddersfield University, I often interact with the Formula Student team (Team Hare) and so with me being a fan of Aerodynamics, specifically race car aero, I have set about optimising the first aero package we have ever incorporated onto a Formula Student vehicle.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

The three images shown here are my full geometry so I can show you them. The image below has very similar geometry to our 2017 car, albeit different end plates to maximise the flow outboard of the front wheels. This is scheduled for CFD through ANSYS in a couple of days.

The image above is another iteration I created using geometry very similar to the 2017 car. While our car had tremendous downforce/drag ratio and efficiency results, we saw a sizable loss through cornering. So while driving linear, the car worked well, it was under an angular motion that the car struggled, so I have set myself a goal of trying to improve this over summer. Stay tuned for some juicy numbers on that.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

The final variant seen above sees a change to the central section endplates, which support more aerofoils. My idea is to move the flow around the suspension A-arms and the pushrod actuated rods - which normally are quite draggy. as well as the tyres. Moreover, this is a fairly similar design in FS as my research shows. I think it looks epic.

I believe it is very important to get a good background on wing design, and so I am currently reading a lot, as well as trial and error with my Solidworks/Ansys designs. Never jump in at the deep end I say, but enjoy the learning ride. I would recommend reading Race Car Aerodynamics from Joseph Katz and this post by Racecar Engineering's Gemma Hatton - http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/tech-explained-formula-student-aerodynamics/ - It's fantastic!

Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this little post, I'll report back when I have some accurate data, where I will correlate it with some wind tunnel testing. Yep, I won't be doing a HRT in F1 ;)

Thursday, February 15, 2018

My Latest CFD work

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Hello again.

So, that's the February exams over, so now I can continue with my biggest passion, Aerodynamics. And as you can see above, I used the in-house Fluid Simulation that Solidworks provides. Yes, Solidworks does not have the best CFD software, but I do have Ansys, and I am currently doing some work here. But more on that soon.

Here you can see two simulations I have performed, one involved fluid flow around a cylinder, which represents a tyre. The other is a simple wing or aerofoil. Starting with the cylinder, I applied a velocity of 100 m/s which is about 220mph at the cylinder. And as you can see, the flow is laminar before it comes into contact with the cylinder.

As the flow interacts with the surfaces, the flow remains attached to the surface of the cylinder, until a stage where the flow becomes detached, thus causing drag. This is one of the biggest factors to take into account when designing a race car.

The flow detachment is down to the boundary layer, where it can no longer run along the surface, and so causing turbulence in the form of a wake, as the lines demonstrate.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

For the second simulation, I performed the same, but on a fairly aggressive aerofoil geometry, as you can see. In the image above, you can see the velocity of the air, as it passes over/under the aerofoil. The red demonstrates the highest velocity speed, where the lowest is shown in blue. This speed and pressure difference is what causes downforce for race car wings.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Here is another screenshot, which shows the pressure plots in Pa. You can see the most pressure is caused by the air stalling, at the very tip of the aerofoil shape.

You can expect lots more CFD simulations from me in the near future too, both in Ansys and Solidworks. Take care guys!

Monday, February 5, 2018

2018 IMechE Pipe Climber challenge

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Hello, how are we?

As part of my course, I have designed a device for the IMechE's 2018 challenge. An internal pipe climber device. And before I explain it, this is my first concept, where testing is due very soon. So keep a lookout on here, for updates!

So, the design revolves around a chassis (red) which sees two DC motors (yellow) mounted in the middle. The output shaft has a pulley (purple) at the end, which goes to an axle at the top of the chassis. The drive is done via two elastic bands.

The battery (pink) is mounted at the bottom for the moment, all is left for this design is to model the wires from the battery to the motors.

Below you can see the device going up the pipe, where I learned how to do simulations. And amazingly it worked. The next stage of the project is to finish building the live model. My biggest issues now are having enough tension from the elastic bands that it overcomes the coefficient of friction from my big drive wheels (green). To add, the torque from the motors must be greater than Mg (mass x gravitational force) which usually is 9.81.

Ill comment on how well testing goes very soon. But for now, back to some maths.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Autosport Show Technical Highlights 2017

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

So I went to Autosport Show on Saturday with some mates of mine, I must say, 2017 was an epic year for #ASI18. After being bombarded with assignments from Uni, I finally took some time to make a quick post, here are some interesting finds I saw. Enjoy.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

2018 Yaris rear wing for WRC.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Rear wheel arch louvres.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Citroen's 2018 WRC car.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Like Toyota, it has a big rear wing.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

I like this, Praga (Google them!) rear suspension is vertically mounted heave spring and damper. Gearbox shaft runs between them?

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Ladies and gentlemen, Ginetta's LMP1 car for Manor racing.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Side angle of the there new LMP1 car.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Under the skin of the Ginetta.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Rear deck view of the LMP1 Ginetta.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

The 2017 Force India was a joy to see.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Rear view of the Force India 2017 racer.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Force India 2017 front wing.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Mitshibushi Evo WTAC car, with a very nice aero concept.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Rear aero view.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

Side aero of the Evo WTAC car.

Pic: Stefan Ruitenberg

This is very interesting, as it's a possible Garage 56 entry for Le Mans. This carbon tub is made by Carl for Welter racing. More info here: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/the-return-of-welter-racing/