Altair > Case Studies > Monash Motorsport Leverages Optimization and Additive Manufacturing Technologies for Victory

Monash Motorsport Leverages Optimization and Additive Manufacturing Technologies for Victory

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Automotive
Life Sciences

Applicable Functions

Logistics & Transportation
Product Research & Development

Use Cases

Additive Manufacturing
Rapid Prototyping

About The Customer

Monash Motorsport is a student-run organization based at Monash University’s largest campus in Clayton, Victoria. A team of 70 students designs, constructs and races an open-wheel racecar in Formula SAE, the world’s largest student engineering design competition with over 500 teams worldwide. In the Monash Motorsport team, students gain invaluable practical skills in their respective fields of both engineering and business, enriching their university experience and equipping them with knowledge that will allow them to prosper in their chosen career paths.

The Challenge

Monash Motorsport, a student-run organization based at Monash University, has been consistently improving the performance of their race car since their first Australian SAE Student Racing competition in 2000. The team was facing new weight and performance challenges at the end of 2013. They aimed to develop faster, lighter, and more innovative race cars while keeping development time and costs under control. The evolution of 3D printing presented a new technology that could help them build even lighter cars. However, it also created new development challenges since the 3D printed components are only as good as their design. The team had to conduct an optimization to find the ideal material distribution in the components while taking into account the additional manufacturing constraints of the additive manufacturing technology.

The Solution

Monash Motorsport employed Altair’s optimization technology OptiStruct to design and optimize a titanium upright, which was then produced using additive manufacturing technology from CSIRO. The use of Altair‘s HyperWorks Suite enabled a simulation driven design process and an optimal structural design of the component planned to be produced with additive manufacturing. Working within the constraints of the current geometry, the students created a design space in Altair‘s optimization tool OptiStruct. By applying boundary conditions such as loads and manufacturing constraints they ran a topology optimization and OptiStruct helped them to create a stiffer and lighter component structure. The students then used the OptiStruct design proposal, interpreted it and created a working CAD design. This design was then validated with a further Finite-Element Analysis, using multiple load cases.

Operational Impact

OptiStruct helped Monash Motorsport to reach the highest possible weight saving and enabled them to achieve the overall goal of the project: a further reduction of weight from an already light upright design. The finished parts are a testimonial for the true capabilities of the combination of optimization with OptiStruct and latest manufacturing technologies such as election beam melting of titanium. With 3D printing, the team didn't have to spend much time on CAM processes or to think about how the part would be machined. This resulted in a lighter and stiffer structure due to the use of topology optimization with OptiStruct and material, time, cost and prototypes savings due to optimized development process with the Altair HyperWorks suite. The team won their sixth consecutive FSAE-Australasia title, becoming the first team in Formula SAE history to take home six consecutive victories at a single competition.

Quantitative Benefit

The total combined weight saving was approximately 30 percent.
The team was able to use less than half of the titanium material used within the traditional manufacturing process.
The overall printing process took only a day, which was a major time saving, compared to the manufacturing of the last year’s aluminum part.