Collaborating Universities Score Big in Formula SAE with Dassault Systèmes Solutions

DELMIA and CATIA Used to Produce Winning Vehicle

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – January 25, 2010 – Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, today announced that collaborative design with Dassault Systèmes solutions contributed to the Global Formula Racing team from Oregon State University and its partner, Duale Hochschule Baden Württenberg-Ravensburg in Germany, experiencing its most successful Formula SAE season, winning 25 first place event finishes and three first place overall finishes out of six competitions. DELMIA digital manufacturing tools were used to create ergonomic simulations that verified cockpit fit and controls reachability. Student teams from both universities designed everything in CATIA based upon one large CAD model from a single database that the entire team could access.

“A lot of universities have done distributed design, but nothing has been done at the complexity of a FormulaSAE/Formula Student (FSAE/FS) vehicle,” said Robert Paasch, OSU Boeing Professor of Mechanical Engineering Design. “We attribute much of our achievements to DELMIA and CATIA with anticipation of the 2010-11 season producing an even more successful vehicle.”

The students used DELMIA to run assembly simulations to ensure that their final body design would not interfere in the ability to service the engine. Design, manufacturing and testing occurred at both schools with the final design used to manufacture two identical cars – one at the OSU campus and one in Friedrichshafen Germany.

Playing an exceptionally critical role in the carbon fiber monocoque chassis design was the surfacing and finite element analysis capability of the CATIA Composites workbench. With the ability to predict structural properties, the student team was able to optimize the stiffness, strength and aerodynamics of its vehicle body. Complex surfaces and layups were created by varying thicknesses of the core material, designing different orientation of the layers as well using different core materials at different structural points of the vehicle body.  

The two universities began their original collaboration in 2007 with the 2009-10 season being the first time ever that a global student team has jointly shared their physical and intellectual resources for the development of a common FSAE/FS vehicle. The team, which consisted of 25 students from Oregon State and 40 students from Duale Hochschule, was split into design groups with responsibility for a particular area of the vehicle, such as the suspension or chassis. All design groups consisted of students collaborating from both universities with CATIA serving as the common language.

“This is the largest, most complex university level project in the world,” said Roy Smolky, worldwide academic sales operations, Dassault Systèmes. “It is exciting to be part of it and see how the application of our tool set gains a competitive advantage for this team.”

For this project, much of the communication was accomplished via email, live chat, Skype and Google docs.  Added Professor Paasch, “Our hope is that by the 2011-12 season we will be working in the DS V6 platform, providing the ability to share all data via the web in real time, taking our collaborative efforts to the next level.”