Interview with LJMU e-Racing

Having been absent from last year’s competition, LJMU e-Racing are back with their new class 2 electric vehicle for FS2018. Read on for the full low-down with team leader Aziz Makkan.

Please introduce your university and team!

LJMU have been competing in FS since 2010-2016 with IC cars. While 2017 was a sabbatical, we’re now entering Formula Student Class 2 with an electric vehicle. This decision stemmed from the trend we’re seeing within the automotive industry to move from conventional IC engine powered vehicles to electrical power; the reason the industry is making this move is down to two main reasons: Efficiency capabilities and instant torque output

Our first electric car will be designed and built with reliability and functionality as a priority. As a first year electric vehicle team, our priority isn’t necessarily to be the fastest on track, it’s to finish in a professional manner.

At LJMU, Formula Student is entirely extra-curricular – there’s no academic credit awarded by the department to the members nor is there a paid manager on placement like the team have had in the past. So we’ve had to undergo a complete reshuffle of our structure, which now comprises of a management team rather than a single manager overseeing the entire project. We have a statics manager looking after the business, costing and manufacturing and the design cases, a dynamics manager overseeing the development of our car and a general manager acting as a liaison between the team and faculty advisors.

We’re made up of a diverse range of students, not just mechanical engineers. For example, we have the sports science department working with our drivers to ensure peak physical and psychological performance whilst the fashion department design our team wear.  We also allow students at any year of study join the team. We have approximately 30 active members helping the team.

What are your objectives for this year’s competition?

We’re the only team from the North West UK competing in Class 2 with an electric car and although the team are competing in a Class 2 with around 30 other universities, we hope that despite being a first year EV team we’ll finish within the top 10. We aim to present the three cases in a professional and fluid manner, resulting in us coming away from competition with constructive feedback from the judges which will identify any holes in our design for the car in 2019.

How close are you with your car?

We’re confident the car will be designed well in time for FSUK18, giving the team the best possible chance to test our designs. We are designing the car around the Yasa 750 axial-flux motor electric motor. It’s capable of very high efficiencies and is very power/torque dense – making it an ideal choice for our first EV. The team will actively be working with our brilliant sponsor Teledyne CML to manufacture carbon fibre bodywork for the Class 1 entry. We also have a few other ideas up our sleeves for the Class 1 entry that you will see come July 2019!

How does your team organise your workload?

We have weekly meetings every Monday, we use these meetings to update everyone on what has been done in the past week and crucially, on what there is to do in the coming week/s. The team’s organisation ensures that each system knows their responsibilities within the team to ensure good progression on the project.

What is new and exciting for your team in 2018?

The major new changes to the car will be based around our new power unit and its ancillary systems. This includes an overhaul of the previous chassis, suspension and cooling systems.

We’ve expanded the reach of the team to different faculties and we actually have a forensic scientist running our social media accounts! We also have students from our world reknown School of Sport and Exercise Sciences involved with projects within the team. We also have a large amount of foundation students getting involved with workshop training and design projects.

The team has spent a lot of effort in gaining new partnerships that mutually benefit both parties. Dassault Systèmes have provided us with an incredible software package that we will take full advantage of to ensure LJMU19 meet our goals on track. We will be using Solidworks and Catia for the design phase of the car, then use Isight for design and parametric optimisation, Tosca for non-parametric optimisation of parts, and fe-safe to ensure that LJMU19 will be a durable car! We are more than happy to be working with Teledyne CML Composites who are based in Bromborough over the water. Teledyne are a leading manufacturer of composite materials, especially in the aviation industry. We will work with them to produce composite bodywork for LJMU 19 and have a road map for further projects in years to come. RS Components offered us a brilliant sponsorship package that will provide us with many of the electrical circuitry components that LJMU19 needs. Bender UK are a leading supplier of electrical system monitoring devices and other devices. They will be supplying us with the IMD that will be in LJMU19. We will be housed over the summer by Liverpool’s favourite student accommodation provider – Sanctuary Students. This will give us vital time over the summer to be working on LJMU19. We are happy to rekindle our relationship with National Instruments. NI have been a great support for the team over its history, this year they will be providing us with engineering support with the existing NI equipment that we have. Hightown Group are continuing their long-standing logistical support for the team and Cammell Laird are continuing with their long-term support of the team by offering their first-class welding services to the team.

What have been your biggest challenges this year and how have you overcome these?

We have had to quickly acclimatise to the task ahead of us – we are comprised of mainly inexperienced (to FS) members and thus sorting a good structure was important to running a successful team. On an engineering side, we are still overcoming the hurdles that a high voltage electric motor comes with.

What made you join Formula Student?

Formula Student presented a golden opportunity to take everything I’ve learnt in the class room and apply it first-hand onto a race car, something I never even dreamt of doing. In terms of job hunting after university, developing an electric car means I’ll be graduating with the perfect skill set to apply for jobs within an industry which is evolving around electric power.

What advice would you give for fellow teams?

Make sure you see more smiles than frowns! A happy team will always work better than a disgruntled one!

How can we keep up to date with you?

All our updates are on our team website and social media - Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.