JOIN IN YOUR MINOR
The design and production of the car is split up into departments. Each department is responsible for a part of the car, and consists of a group of part-time and full-time engineers, headed by the department chief. Department chiefs are responsible for the top-level design of their section of the car and supporting their engineers in the design of their parts. Department chief is a full-time position.
MINOR APPLICATION
Looking for a minor with practical experience? Formula Student Team Delft offers the option to do a free minor. In the minor you will join the team working full-time on an essential part of the car. Next to this work you follow a set of courses that complement your work in the team. To help you with the selection of your electives we offer proposals that define both the project you will be working on as well as a number of courses that complement it. At the end of the minor a thesis is written on the subject of the minor. This thesis is defended before old members of the team and a professor. The final grade is based on both the thesis and the defense.
You need to get your free minor approved by the exam committee of your faculty.
FS Team Delft helps you with the free minor application by:
- Suggesting useful electives
- Assisting you in filling out the application form
- Reminding you of relevant deadlines
Important: Please note that approval from the exam committee of your faculty is necessary and not guaranteed. Also there are limited places available. In case the number of applications exceeds the number of available places, a selection will be made by the team.
Note: On this page you can multiple examples of possible minor projects. Your actual project will be decided based on your skillset with your department chief.
3ME / EE - ACCUMULATOR
Don't light it on fire...
The accumulator is the power storage for the electric racer. It typically consists of a large set of Lithium Polymer battery cells. On a conceptual level, the global parameters of the accumulator hugely affect the vehicles final performance. For instance, the energy contained within the Accumulator determines the average power to be used over a given time, and therefore the vehicles speed and acceleration performance. On a more detailed level, structural design and material selections influence the weight of the accumulator and the internal packaging of the accumulator has an effect on the cars cooling performance. Being subjected to a large set of regulations, the design of the accumulator also involves many safety aspects. Designing an accumulator is a very multidisciplinary task. Areas of interest may include Electrical systems design, composite structures design and thermodynamic analysis, among others.
3ME / TNW - CONTROL SYSTEMS DESIGN
Push it to the limit.
Since 2012 Formula Student Team Delft has been building a four wheel driven (4wd) electric race car. Besides the advantage of being able to power all 4 tyres to aid acceleration it gives for another large advantage of being able to individually control the torque sent to each wheel. Chief among this system is something commonly known as traction control and anti block system, but also yaw acceleration and driving strategy is actively controlled during driving. The end goals is to allow the driver (a student from the team) to push/use the car closer to its theoretical limit. Control system design combines simulation work (In matlab Simulink) with the study of vehicle dynamics, the study of how a vehicle will behave when pushed to the limit.
3ME - MECHANICAL DESIGN
As long as it's stevig...
A large amount of the parts found in the car are conceived through ”traditional” mechanical design, with varying degrees of difficulty. Designing these parts often finds the engineer reverting to knowledge gained during the bachelors study of mechanical engineering. A few examples of these parts are the transmission or brake system of the car. To make sure these parts don’t fail, students need to identify the use cases of their part and what kind of mechanical properties their part needs to have. A design needs to be made in CAD software, which ends with the student making production drawings to have his/her part produced by an external supplier.
3ME - THEORETICAL VEHICLE DESIGN
The smartest department on paper.
One of the goals of the team is to win all competitions they attend. This in turn requires the car to have a high theoretical performance. This is expressed in the ability of the vehicle to achieve high accelerations in longitudinal, lateral and yaw directions. These accelerations all come from the tyre road interaction the vehicle has. Load distributions on the tyre, and placement of the tyre on tarmac are key performance features of the vehicle which not only influence the accelerations the vehicle can achieve but also the driveability of the vehicle. In racing terminology this is often expressed as over- or understeer. The primary challenge is achieve the highest possible accelerations, whilst keeping the car driveable.
EE / TNW - HV ELECTRONICS
Can't touch this. Really.
At the heart of the car lie 4 electric motors and motor controllers. The motor controllers convert a request in motor torque to a current sent to the motors. To properly do this and to be able to extract maximum performance from the motors a set of regulator and control PCBs is required to make sure that this is achieved. These PCBs need to perform in high noise environments and handle high currents (up to 33A per motor) at 600V without jeopardizing the performance of the vehicle. The design of these PCBs has been started in the past years, however as the design is extremely challenging it is not yet optimal. This subject of this project is on the HV electronics side: The module that converts multiple PWM signals into a three phase current output while measuring its own operation.
EE - LV ELECTRONICS
Electrifying
As with modern age road vehicles electronic intelligence lies at the basis of reliability and performance. As a start the last FS Team Delft race car contains over 400 sensors, measuring for example acceleration, gyration and temperatures throughout the car. Most of this data is collected by PCBs close to the sensors. These are placed in tough environments where temperatures may exceed 60 degrees, where water may penetrate or where mechanical stress may be high. For the next step we are looking for electrical engineers that seek to apply their knowledge to design electronics in the competitive Formula Student environment.
TI - EMBEDDED SOFTWARE
Critical Error
Since 2011 Formula Student Team Delft has been building an electric powered race car. The car has evolved and has become more intelligent than ever before in terms of data and control algorithms. At the backbone of these improvements is the software department. Systems such as the central control unit, dashboard and accumulator management run real-time (free RTOS). To take the next step in the software development we are looking for motivated software engineers that would like to learn more on embedded programming.
IO - ERGONOMICS DESIGN
Gotta Race Comfy
The ergonomics of our Formula Student cars is one of the most important factors for an overall good performance and competitive car. The ergonomic design is the interface between the theoretical performance of the car, and the real human-machine interface which makes it possible for the driver to use this performance in the real world. Students working on the design of the ergonomics of our car will need proper project management and teamwork skills, because of the very limited timeframe available (we build a new car every year) and the many dependencies of other components of the car.
LR - AERODYNAMICS
No pressure.
The aerodynamic characteristics and performance of our Formula Student cars have become increasingly important for an overall good performance and competitive car. The "classic" challenge ilies in minimising drag while maximising downforce. Using CFD the aerodynamic performance of the different elements is estimated as well as the center of pressure. The final goal is an aero package that optimises all of these criteria, but is also producable.
LR - STRUCTURES
Bring structures into your life!
Formula Student team Delft has always strived to built the most lightweight car possible. An important reason why our Formula Student cars are so light, is the structural design of our car. The structures minor is focussed on the composite design of either the chassis or the aerodynamic package. In both cases the production process of the designed parts is of extreme importance. Hence students will develop theoretical as well as practical experience.
