Senior Design Expo 2019

FSAE EV Systems Integration
Team FAHK: Fernando A. Pascual, Austen
Paris, Henry Tucher, Katherine Guan
Advisor: Prof. Josh Browne
For our senior design project we are
building Columbia University’s first electric
racecar for Formula SAE intercollegiate
racing. Our project scope includes integrating
the electric vehicle functional systems into
the chassis of an existing FSAE internal
combustion racecar as well as coordinating
and leading the FSAE EV team in all
mechanical engineering aspects of the
racecar. Four key mechanical design
challenges for this project include battery
accumulator design, motor packaging,
mechanical drivetrain implementation, and
structural chassis design. The team is also
designing two cooling systems for electrical
components as part of a seperate Electrical
Vehicle Drivetrain Design class.
Design projects for EV Drivetrain
Design Class include motor and inverter
cooling which will be completed under the
scope of the EV Drivetrain class by Fernando
Pascual, and battery cooling thermal analysis
to be completed by Austen Paris and
Katherine Guan. Other design projects have
been delegated to team members or reserved
for later in the competition lead up. A new
steering wheel with a larger display is being
designed by a mech-e team member, for
which Henry Tucher is designing the display
in addition to the Structural Equivalency
Sheet (SES).
Because this is Columbia’s first
attempt at building an electric racecar for
FSAE, the team seeks to achieve basic
moving vehicle operation and establish a
benchmark for successive teams. A further
goal is for the vehicle to pass FSAE technical
inspection and compete at FSAE North in
Barrie, Ontario in 47 days. This report details
our designs, ideation, and engineering
analysis to validate our design’s expected
performance. Through this project, we aspire
to promote sustainable transportation and the
future of electric vehicles on campus.
CAD models and fabrication progress
can be referenced in Figures.
References
We began research for our E-FSAE
project through a website review of
University of Pennsylvania’s standout FSAE
Electric team [1]. Penn’s website and
documentation yielded a framework to
reference for the design considerations of our
own car. We found Penn’s 2016-2017 REV3
electric car runs a single motor for rear-wheel
drive utilizing an Enstroj Emrax 207 MV
motor similar to the Emrax 208 motor we will
use [2]. The second principal source we
consulted from our online search was the
Formula SAE rulebook, which documents
comprehensive guidelines for FSAE design,
safety, and competition, with a section
devoted specifically to electric vehicles [3].
We also found the University of
Wisconsin’s FSAE Electric team’s paper
detailing accumulator design particularly
useful [4]. Lastly, a paper published by
Toyota describes using forced convection to
air-cool batteries, which we consulted when
considering the ventilation and cooling
through our accumulator design [5].
1. http://www.pennelectricracing.com/r
ev3
2. Emrax 208 Technical Data Table
3. Formula SAE Rules 2019 -
FSAEOnline.com
4. Wisconsin Accumulator Design
5. https://patents.google.com/patent/US
5937664A/en
65