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Wheels:
Axial DC fans cool ETSEIB Motorsport electric formula car

Orion Fans has helped ETSEIB Motorsport, a team of Spanish engineering students, reach a milestone in electric formula racing. Orion Fans' Axial DC fans were a key element in developing the first effective fan cooling solution for the carbon-fiber Formula SAE hybrid car's power system.

Students studying engineering courses including Industrial engineering, chemistry, and materials at the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB) make up the ETSEIB Motorsport team. The CAT08e racecar is the eighth version of the vehicle built by the engineering students in Barcelona, Spain, and the first with a Monocoque full-carbon-fiber chassis.

Orion Fans joined the student-run ETSEIB Motorsport team in 2014, with a commitment to providing an efficient fan cooling solution that would keep the electric-powered formula racecar batteries operating optimally in extreme conditions. Orion has delivered on its promise with a cooling system that utilizes 18 Axial DC fans and can move more than 80 CFM. (The original solution had 20 fans, but the students were able to pare that down to 18 in an effort to keep the total weight down.)

The electrical systems used in these electric formula cars can run at 400 V with a discharge intensity of maximum 250 A, generating significant amounts of heat. Traditionally, heat is channeled away from both electric vehicles and electric formula racecars via water cooling and lightweight heat sinks. These, unfortunately, are expensive methods of removing heat. Orion Fans' cost-efficient Axial DC fan design provides more simplistic thermal management, maintaining core temperatures at a safe and operational level.

Last year at the Formula Student Spain 22-km endurance race held at the Circuit de Catalunya, the ETSEIB Motorsport racecar was best-in-class as it was one of the only vehicles to complete the race. Most vehicles overheated and their electronics and battery systems shut down after reaching temperatures of more than 70 deg C (158 deg F). Orion's Axial DC fan cooling system kept the vital electronics inside the ETSEIB Motorsport racecar at under 56 deg C (133 deg F), outperforming the competition.

This application required 18 fans total:

• Five 80-mm OD8032 DC fans;
• Nine 40-mm OD4010 DC fans; and
• Four 25-mm OD2510 DC fans.

"The Formula Student Spain competition is based on several different tests, the most important being the 22-km endurance race designed to test the cars to the limit," said Ian Cusine, ETSEIB Motorsport Powertrain Department. "With high air temperatures reaching up to 39 deg C (102 deg F), more than half of the participants experienced overheating problems. But heat was not a problem for our car thanks to the Orion Fans' products that provide high performance with low consumption of electricity."

About FSAE (from the SAE International site)
Formula SAE is a student design competition organized by SAE International (formerly Society of Automotive Engineers). The first competition was started back in 1979 after Mark Marshek, then at University of Houston (Texas), contacted the SAE Educational Relations Department in 1978 to discuss adding a variant event of the Mini Baja; the name Mini Indy was founded.

The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. The target marketing group for the race car is the non-professional weekend autocross racer. Each student team designs, builds, and tests a prototype based on a series of rules aimed to ensure onsite event operations and promote clever problem solving.

Today, the competition has expanded and includes a number of spinoff events. In the United States, there are two locations: California and Michigan. Michigan is the largest and longest running event.

Internationally, as part of the Official Formula SAE Series utilizing the Formula SAE Rules Copyright under signed agreement are:

• Formula SAE Australasia
• Formula SAE Brazil
• Formula SAE Italy
• Formula Student (UK)
• Formula Student Austria
• Formula Student Germany
• Formula SAE Japan

In 2006, Dartmouth College (partnered with SAE International) created the fuel-alternative event Formula Hybrid using Formula SAE cars with gasoline-electric hybrid power plants.

For more information about Orion Fans' Axial DC fans, go to http://orionfans.com/products/dc-fans.html.

Source: Orion Fans

Published October 2016

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