Formula Electric Belgium

Formula Electric Belgium
Full name	Formula Electric Belgium
Base	Leuven, Belgium; 50°53′19.29″N 4°45′28.9″E / 50.8886917°N 4.758028°ECoordinates: 50°53′19.29″N 4°45′28.9″E / 50.8886917°N 4.758028°E ⧼validator-fatal-error⧽; ;
Team Manager	Arthur Coppieters
Chief Engineer	Stijn Verheyen
Website	formulaelectric.be
2017 Formula Student Season
Current Model	Umicore Nova
Chassis	2017 Aluminum Honeycomb Monocoque
Motors	4x AMK 26 KW
Tyres	Continental C16
Electronics	Microautobox ECU, Home-made Battery Management System and sensor nodes
Formula Student World Championship
Debut	2015 Formula Student UK
Latest race	2017 Formula Student Hungary
Current World Ranking (electric)	50th (as of 2017-08-05)

Formula Electric Belgium (FEB), locally known as Formula Electric, is a Belgian Formula Student team associated with the KU Leuven. The team was founded in 2014 after a fusion between Formula Group T from the then independent college Groep T and Thomas More Innovation of Thomas More, which existed since 2011.^[2] The team, based in Kessel-Lo (Leuven), takes only part in the electric class of Formula Student and ranks 50^th in this class.^[3] The current team manager is Arthur Coppieters.

Team[edit]

Composition[edit]

The team is composed of about 35 students of the KU Leuven, who either follow the post-graduate programme innovative entrepreneurship or who write their bachelor's or master's thesis at the team. Remarkably, these students represent a lot of different campuses of the university, of which the campuses in Leuven, Heverlee, Hasselt, Sint-Katelijne-Waver and Ghent. The most important target of the project is education. The students grow in technical knowledge by applying the theory learnt at university in a semi-professional environment, but also improve soft skills, as the team is entirely run and organised by the students.

Mission[edit]

Formula Electric Belgium designs, produces and tests an electric race car in about 9 months every year, to partake in different events of the international Formula Student competition during the summer months.^[4] The motto of Formula Electric Belgium is Green innovation meets performace, which firstly refers to the ecological interests of the team, namely promoting electric mobility in Belgium. Secondly, it stands for innovation and education. FEB works closely together with a number of partners, with whom they can test new technologies. The third facet emphasises the motivation and the passion of the students to contruct a competitive car for the competitions, for now remaining the fastest accelerating car manufactured in Belgium.

Technology[edit]

FEB aims for the use of top-tech materials and methods to design and produce the car. All cars have a CFRP monocoque suspended by a double wishbone suspension with push or pull rods. The tyres are slicks purpose-built for motorsport racing purposes and the car is being pushed into the ground by an aerodynamic package developed with CFD and wind tunnel techniques. A number of the components is 3D-printed. The team also works on electronic control software like torque vectoring and traction control. At all times, the car has to comply with the strict safety requirements of the competition and can only be driven be people in complete fire-resistant equipment.

Cars[edit]

Umicore Luna (2015)[edit]

The highlight of the first car of the cooperation between Formula Group T and Thomas More Innovation were the home-developed motors in cooperation with Swiss motor manufacturer Brusa, with a combined power of 120 kW. Moreover, Umicore Luna was - including the cars of both preceding teams - the first car with an aerodynamic package and was equipped with home-developed rims out of carbon fibre and aluminium. The chassis of Umicore Luna is a carbon fibre monocoque.

Umicore Isaac (2016)[edit]

Umicore Isaac continues on the same path of Luna with the carbon fibre monocoque, the 120 kW (combined) motors developed in cooperation with Brusa, an aerodynamic package and aluminium/CFRP-hybrid rims. During the AutoX event of Formula Student Germany, the suspension of Umicore Isaac failed in a spectacular fashion due to a failure of the pushrod of the left front wheel. This issue was resolved even before the endurance the day after.

Umicore Nova (2017)[edit]

The third car knows another large design switch, as it is the first car to be equipped with four electric motors, who are mounted inside the car's rims together with their planetary gearbox and 3D-printed cooling jacket. This time around the motor supplier was the German AMK. This resulted in a weight of no less than 203 kg for a combined power of 145 kW. Also the modular lightweight battery package is part of the state-of-the-art technology of Umicore Nova. Because of these new technologies, the results of Umicore Nova are characterised by a lot of potential, but however an often dissapointing reliability.

Results[edit]

Competitions not counting for the world ranking have an asterisk added to their name.

Season	Competition	Location	Chassis	Tyres	Powertrain	Result	World ranking
2015	Formula Student UK	Silverstone	Umicore Luna	Hoosier	2 E-motors RWD	38^th (265 pts)	42^nd
2015	Formula Student Germany	Hockenheim	Umicore Luna	Hoosier	2 E-motors RWD	16^th (297 pts)	40^th
2015	Formula Student Czech Republic	Autodrom Most	Umicore Luna	Hoosier	2 E-motors RWD	4^th (623 pts)	25^th
2016	Formula Student UK	Silverstone	Umicore Isaac	Hoosier	2 E-motors RWD	57^th (217 pts)	40^th
2016	Formula Student Germany	Hockenheim	Umicore Isaac	Hoosier	2 E-motors RWD	24^th (242 pts)	47^th
2016	Formula Student Spain	Circuit de Catalunya	Umicore Isaac	Hoosier	2 E-motors RWD	16^th (324 pts)	42^nd
2017	Formula Student Netherlands*	TT Circuit Assen	Umicore Nova	Continental	4 in-wheel E-motors	8^th (183 pts)
2017	Formula Student Czech Republic	Autodrom Most	Umicore Nova	Continental	4 in-wheel E-motors	10^th (298 pts)	53^rd
2017	Formula Student Hungary*	Györ	Umicore Nova	Continental	4 in-wheel E-motors	4^th

Formula Electric Belgium

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