Altair > Case Studies > Driving Energy Efficiency: TUfast Eco Team's Success with HyperWorks

Driving Energy Efficiency: TUfast Eco Team's Success with HyperWorks

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Digital Twin / Simulation
Robots - Autonomous Guided Vehicles (AGV)

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Life Sciences

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Transportation Simulation
Vehicle Performance Monitoring

Services

System Integration
Training

About The Customer

The TUfast Eco team is a group of about 30 highly motivated students from the Technical University Munich. The team is divided into one administrative and three technical groups – chassis, suspension and powertrain. The students design and develop all vehicle components and assemblies, which are then manufactured in the team’s workshop or in cooperation with external partners. The team has been one of the most successful teams in the Shell Eco-marathon, an international contest for sustainable mobility, where student teams from schools and universities all over the world design vehicles that are as energy-efficient as possible.

The Challenge

The TUfast Eco team from the Technical University Munich, consisting of about 30 students from various fields of study, was tasked with designing, developing, and manufacturing an energy-efficient vehicle to compete in various energy-efficiency contests, including the Shell Eco-marathon. The challenge was to create an entirely new vehicle each year, with no component of the previous year's vehicle allowed to be used. This was to ensure that the technical expertise and development approaches of previous years were passed on to the new team. One of the most important aspects in the development of an energy-efficient vehicle was to reduce the mass of the vehicle. Therefore, the team members were constantly looking for weight-saving potentials, especially when designing the suspension and chassis.

The Solution

The TUfast Eco team used Altair Engineering’s HyperWorks software suite to develop, analyze and optimize the vehicle's components prior to production. Almost every part of each vehicle of the TUfast Eco team’s eLi series was designed, simulated and optimized with CAE software prior to production. The team employed the tools of the HyperWorks suite, including HyperMesh for geometry creation and meshing, OptiStruct as their FEA solver and optimization tool, and HyperView for post-processing tasks. The team used simulation to investigate how the plies of the vehicle could be positioned best to fully benefit from the chosen material, carbon (CFRP). To optimize the composite material and components, the students applied a three-step optimization approach, developed by Altair especially for the design and optimization of composite materials.

Operational Impact

The use of simulation and optimization tools led to the eLi15 vehicle being the lightest vehicle participating in the 2015 Shell Eco-marathon. The team was able to save an additional 10 percent of weight in 2016, leading to a final official vehicle weight of only 24 kg. The front suspension underwent further optimization, leading to an additional weight saving of 25 percent. The team also broke the official world record for the most efficient electric vehicle, reaching a top value of 1232 km/kWh, equal to a range of 10965 km per one liter of Super 95 fuel. The team plans to continue using the HyperWorks suite to develop all new vehicles and to design, optimize and analyze components and assemblies, to create even lighter, more efficient vehicles in the future.

Quantitative Benefit