Our first version of the officiall Clear River Racing newsletter! Get a behind the scenes look of what our different teams are currently working on!!
Welcome to our brand-new newsletter! This is where you will be able to take part in what is going on during our weekly hours, and get all the interesting information to make sure more people can be engaged in our project. This first letter – which indeed was a bit late – is all about what each group has been working with for starters up until what they are doing now, including some words from our project leaders as well.
A word from the project leaders
We started this years’ project in the end of August and it has been an experience out of the ordinary to say the least. During these two months we have witnessed incredible progress among our members. They have shown great interest in the project, acquired a lot of new knowledge and impressed us with their performances. It has been delightful getting to know all our new members and we look forward to getting to know them even better! A project such as this always comes with ups and downs, some more severe than others. We have had a few major setbacks since the project start. But through great teamwork and ambition we have overcome these obstacles and are back on track according to plan! We are currently finishing up the research/concept phase in some parts of the project while others are constructing and simulating their respective systems. In addition, some groups have already started prototyping and even manufacturing! Next week on Thursday we will co-host IN-dagen at Karlstad University where we would like to welcome many of our sponsors and many other companies. We are looking forward to meeting them and for them to meet us and many more students!
Aerodynamics
We started this year off with a lot of research in aerodynamics, more specifically in what it actually is. We read about vortex, down/drag-force, turbulence, laminar flow, Bernoulli, Reynold etc… In other words, we needed to have a knowledge base to build on and I think we did a great job with that. With the information that we learned from past years’ team and all our research, we created a couple of concepts on every aerodynamic part that will be included on the car. By the end of September we started working on the concepts that we had, and we also started to filter out some of the ideas. By the beginning of October, some of us had already started to simulate some concepts and that is what we are working with until this day.
Chassis
Chassis has been working on exploring how roll stiffness in the chassis effects suspension and transfer of load. We have also made a concept for how the current design of the chassis could be modified for it to better hold the battery box and other electrical components, and at the same time attaining a low total weight, better weight distribution and a lower center of gravity. We have calculated strength and simulated the new chassis concept as well as worked on coming up with a new design for the battery box, to further lower the center of gravity and enable a more effective packaging of batteries and components. Then we optimized the dimensions of the steel tube chassis members, allowing for increased torsional stiffness while lowering overall weight. Met up with our new composites sponsor, Marstrom Composite AB, where we picked up carbon fiber and other manufacturing materials that we needed to begin manufacture of the monocoque. Lastly we treated the monocoque mold with release agent and began laying up the first layers of carbon fiber into it.
Marketing
During the first month of this years’ project, the marketing group has been installed and we are now a team of 7 people. In the marketing group, we have read the rules of competition, especially the static events, created an understanding regarding the scope of the project and our role in it. We have also discussed our expectations for the upcoming year and planned for how we want to move forward. A big part of our time has been put into getting in contact with our sponsors who have been around before as well as new ones, and also other preparations for things to run as smoothly as possible. The focus now lies in the planning of the fair IN-Dagen, which is a work fair for STEM students at Karlstad University which is hosted and planned by Clear River Racing. We hope to see some of you there!
PR
This year was the first time that CRR started a separate PR group. This was because we saw a bigger need to focus on our external communications to not only spread our project and brand more but also to show and give appreciation to our sponsors and the work and help they give us. Our work mainly started with planning and mapping out the strategic basis that we wish to follow with our communication. Then the work to create content began. The content creation consists of photographing, filming and designing everything from social media posts, sponsor posts, team clothes and marketing material for upcoming events. Now our main focus is the external marketing of our work fair IN-Dagen. After this the plan is to continue to make content to show our work and perhaps make some content together with some of our new sponsors.
Suspension
The focus of the first month for the suspension group was mainly put into research. This included the concept of weight transfer, analyzing tire data as well as taking knowledge from previous experiences, plus inspiration from our older cars. We have specified the requirements by the rules as well as defined our goal to achieve maximum performance. Next month some of us will start to design while the rest will simulate to iterate hardpoints to achieve the set requirements and wishes.
Voltage
For this past month the voltage group has been working on a couple of different tasks. We have developed and simulated multiple electric circuits and have created a couple of PCB designs for these circuits. The next phase in this development cycle is to solder the components onto the PCB:s and try out the circuits on a test bench. We have also been working with the vehicles cooling systems and have conducted tests in a wind tunnel to determine the required size of the radiator in our liquid cooling system for the motors. We are also in the process of designing a driver panel, side panel and a couple of containers for our electronic equipment and some parts included in the tractive system. Parallel to these activities we are doing some maintenance work on our previous vehicle to get it into a working condition.
Lastly, on behalf of the whole team, we want to thank all our sponsors that we have gotten so far. Without you, this would not be possible.
