2015 Formula Student Austria

[BeunMan]

FSA Starts Sunday!

Schedule: https://fsaustria.at/wp-content/uploads/16/FSA2015_schedule_v20.pdf
Website: https://fsaustria.at/



So ... continuing from the FSG discussion: Will we get sub 3.3 (or sub 3.0) acceleration times?

Discussion about sub 3.0 Acceleration times: http://www.fsae.com/forums/showthread.php?12119-2015-Formula-Student-Germany/page4


Since many of us won't be there: Please keep us informed!

[JulianH]

The Acceleration at FSA is a bit downwards sloped, so I guess a Sub-3,3s could be possible. Last year, Zurich was a bit quicker at FSA compared to FSG. Stuttgart had some troubles if I remember correctly.

I'm even more interested to see if GFR is able to get back the SkidPad "World record", after Zurich took it from them in Silverstone.

The competitions should both be close like at FSG with all the Podium finishers back together! Should be fun :)

[BeunMan]

... Last year, Zurich was a bit quicker at FSA compared to FSG. Stuttgart had some troubles if I remember correctly....

Sounds interesting. I expect Stuttgart to have fixed their problems and go for a true 'world record holder's time'.



I'm even more interested to see if GFR is able to get back the SkidPad "World record", after Zurich took it from them in Silverstone.
...

Don't count out the others. A drypad though, so no rain advantage for Delft at least.

[BeunMan]

FSA-E Design and Presentation: https://twitter.com/amzracing/status/631344992557121536


Most importantly:

http://timekeeping.fsaustria.at/

[JulianH]

So far the Accel times are a bit "disappointing". The Top5 are within 1.3 tenth, which is interesting:

E13 Munich UAS 3.640 122.73
E26 Stuttgart U 3.663 114.41
E33 Zürich ETH 3.670 108.00
E31 Munich TU 3.710 111.11
E85 Delft U 3.770 114.41

Looking forward if the track get's quicker later on. In SkidPad, GFR is in a world of their own so far, and Delft is 2,5 tenths slower than in the Wet at FSG ;)

[Z]

So, once again GFR/OSU win C-class Skid-Pad, AutoX, Enduro, Efficiency, and Overall ... but only get mid-field in the Design Event!

I bet the GFR students are glad that FS is NOT a "Design" competition. :)
~o0o~

Congratulations also to ETH in E-class.

Big gaps back to second place in both cases...

Z

[JulianH]

Z,

to be fair, Delft and Stuttgart failed DNF which led to the big gaps. If the Endurance times would have continued like that, Delft would have been ~25points behind Zurich and Stuttgart probably would have ended GFR's reign at FSA.
Additionally the third C class "podium candidate", TUFast Munich had a major problem in the dynamics. Yes, I know "that does not count", but it explains the gaps a bit ;)

I don't know why GFR was hit so hard in Design. They were in the German finals, so not everyone disapproves of their new car... Maybe they will share their feedback here..

Impressive competition by the three big guns (Stuttgart, Zurich, Delft) in the electric class. All were in the run of a 900+ scoring when they came to endurance and showed the fastest times out there. Very nice!
The two Munich E cars were also really close this time, sadly not in all disciplines.


So after seven years of FSA, the overall winners only are GFR/OSU and AMZ/ETH. What a streak ;)

[BeunMan]

Delft DNF was due to overheating of the accumulator due to the restriction in the airflow they had to do for passing scrutineering.

[TMichaels]

A graceful degradation strategy would have prevented that.

[JulianH]

A graceful degradation strategy would have prevented that.

Win it or bin it! :)

[BeunMan]

A graceful degradation strategy would have prevented that.

That was my idea as well.

[Z]

...to be fair, Delft and Stuttgart failed DNF which led to the big gaps.
...
Additionally the third C class "podium candidate", TUFast Munich had a major problem in the dynamics.

Julian,

Do you know any of the causes of the DNFs? In a rather twisted way, I see the many failures in these comps as perhaps the most interesting parts of the whole show! :)

Quite seriously, I think if all the Teams were better informed of all the things that can go wrong, and DO go wrong, then they would be much better "educated", and so should do much better at next year's comps.

I am probably asking too much here, but I am thinking of a sort of database similar to the "World Ranking List" that is linked from the FSG-website. So, something that can be searched by Competition, or Event, or Team, or even "Category of Failure". Appropriate searching would then give the clever students a long list of all the things that they should NOT DO, or at the very least, should APPROACH WITH EXTREME CAUTION!

My current gut-feeling is that things like "glued-carbonfibre-tube wishbones" would be quite high on that list. Overly optimised rodends (eg. anything under ~5 mm) might also be up there. Having too much, or badly done, "mission critical" electrical-wiring and liquid-plumbing is probably also very high on the list (eg. think air-cooled, NOT water-cooled).

But working with the hard statistical facts is generally better than going on gut-feeling...

Z

(PS: ~65% failure rate in FSG's Enduro means that there is plenty of material available to start that database!)

[JulianH]

Z,

as Tristan said, Delft had temperature problems with their cells and the accumulator monitoring system shut the car down out of safety reasons. You are not allowed to reset that.
Stuttgart had a problem during re-starting. I think the airbox got destroyed. Backfire or something.

We run the CFRP clued wishbones since 2009 and never had a problem with them. You just need to do a lot of testing and keep them away from the exhaust, then you should be fine ;)

For electric cars, I think water (IMD) is the biggest problem and of course some electric gremlins in the system :)

Cheers
Julian