Goodyear pulls tires, Pitt team copes
[The Pitt News, Oct. 12, 2012, pg. 1 print edition]
A formidable beast emerges each spring from the windowless dungeons beneath Benedum Hall. A synergistic product of human effort, advanced technology and gasoline, the 400-pound beast steers its way toward Detroit, where it competes to shower glory on its creators — a crew of mostly Pitt undergraduate mechanical engineers.
But this year, an unexpected game change threatens to strain the cycle of creative progress.
A rubber roadblock
Building race cars is a fast-paced way of life for the members of Pitt’s Formula Society for Automotive Engineers club, the craftsmen behind the seasonal Benedum beast. “We start from scratch every year,” junior John Conturo said.
From the final flag of the May tournament at the Michigan International Speedway, seen as the culminating finish line by the 120 or so collegiate Formula SAE teams that compete in the tournament, the Pitt team steps on next year’s gas pedal.
It has fewer than 12 months to design prototypes, run simulations, gather parts, assemble structure, test performance, fix problems and redo performance tests in order to produce a new automobile for the following competition.
“A year is not a long time to build one of these,” said senior Andrew Frank, vice president of the club.
With such time challenges already on their minds, many teams — including Pitt’s — have a new wrench to pry from the gears of scheduling: They have to find different tires for the 2012-2013 season. That’s because on Sept. 13, Goodyear, a tire manufacturer and long-time sponsor of the Formula SAE collegiate program, pulled its 13-inch tires from the competition.
“It was obvious based on the research we’ve done if we wanted to remain competitive, we should have developed a 10-inch tire,” Goodyear spokesman Kerry Christopher said, referring to the 10-inch tire diameter.
After determining that future production of the 10-inch tires or the already popular 13-inch tires would not make cost-benefit sense, Goodyear ceased production of Formula SAE tires altogether. “We have not made any [Formula SAE tires] at this point,” Christopher said.
Tournament organizer SAE International estimates this change could substantially affect the 24 percent of competing teams that used Goodyear 13-inch tires in 2012.
But the significance of teams having to procure different tires might be lost on all but car gurus. For folks uninitiated into the ethos of automotive enthusiasm, tires might appear as rubber afterthoughts in the context of other car parts — e.g., engine, axle.
On the contrary, Pitt’s Formula team contends that tires deserve more respect.
“The tires are the only way that the car is connected to the ground,” said club president Steven Karkenny, emphasizing how tires must stabilize several tons of weight with about as much surface area as a pair of shoe soles.
Given the intimate relationship between tires and the road, “One of the things we design the car around is the tires,” he said. “You want to make sure you design your car so that it uses [the tires’] grip to its full potential.”
Like the premise of a logical proof, tires form the basis from which all design decisions follow, so changing tire brands after four months into the 2012-2013 design process amounts to no minor substitution.
“Each tire, depending on the manufacturer, has different properties,” Karkenny said. “They react in different ways. The way that they grip the road can be a little bit different, and the positions that they like to be in can be different.”
The position that tires “like” refers to the optimal slip angles that typify tires. When the steering wheel turns while a car is in motion, all tires slip to some degree, meaning that the direction of the car’s resulting movement differs from the front wheels’ intended direction. This difference in direction defines the slip angle, which varies between tire types and, under changing force conditions, within a single tire type.
Therefore, the main goal of designing the car’s structural frame “is to keep the tire at the correct slip angle and to keep it so that as much tire is contacting the ground as possible,” Karkenny said. “It’s a big geometry problem.”
Getting over the hump
Solving that geometry problem will consume much of the Pitt Formula group’s focus over the next few weeks. The team must collaboratively pore over data on the new tires — regarding slip angles and other measures — then plug those data into computer simulations and make necessary adjustments to the car design. Despite the novelty of the tire dilemma and the time pressures it implies for testing the car on the track, Frank is hopeful.
“We’re always troubleshooting, always finding problems and finding ways to fix them,” he said.
Frank’s hope might stem from the vast resources Pitt SAE has at its disposal. In addition to its shop in the sub-basement of Benedum Hall, the club receives tens of thousands of dollars in funding from Pitt’s Student Government Board, support from the Swanson School of Engineering and various sponsors along with access to high-tech machines throughout Benedum and outside the University.
Two of these machines in particular allow the team to 3-D print custom plastic and metal components, which they first design with special computer software.
“We get to use these technologies, which are very cool,” Karkenny said.
However, money, space and fancy equipment don’t spawn race cars on their own. Led by a cadre of student veterans and faculty adviser William Slaughter, about 50 engineering undergrads provide that link in 2012.
Operating as a kind of collegiate cottage industry, Pitt SAE features a network of masters and apprentices working together to create and preserve knowledge and practices across generations of students. Sophomore Ali Schroer, new to the club, experiences the apprentice side firsthand.
“I’ll come down whenever I don’t have class, provided someone else is down here who knows what they’re doing and can give me a job,” Schroer said.
Without expecting paychecks or victory at the competition, club members commit large personal investments, especially as May approaches.
“We spend plenty of all-nighters down here,” said drive-train subteam leader Conturo, noting how members commonly lose track of time. “We just know by when Pandora shuts off.”
Students burn midnight candles in the name of automotive engineering for various reasons. The love of competition drives some.
“Being able to design something and show up with something that can compete with those teams and those other engineers that are all brilliant is kind of a neat experience,” Frank said.
Thoughts of future jobs drive others, as club involvement has provided former Pitt SAE members with marketable skills in private industry.
“Since its conception 27 years ago, everyone who’s been a senior member of the club has had a job when they graduated,” said senior chemical engineering major Andrew Decker, who also leads the club’s aerodynamics and ergonomics subteam. “100 percent job placement.”
Building race cars in college also excites students on an intellectual level. That’s especially true for Schroer. Much like the brain scientist stands agape at the bewildering complexity of his neurological subject, Schroer derives enjoyment out of making the car the object of her curiosity.
“Whenever someone hands me something new, and it’s got a bajillion and one things going on, I want to know exactly what’s going on with every single little thing,” she said. “And it’s nice because this car offers infinitely many chances to do that.”
For Karkenny, who’s been with the club for four years, driving the final product tops his list of motivators.
“Being at the limit of control, I love that feeling,” he said, noting how last year’s car could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. “Imagine a rollercoaster that you can control.”
A formidable beast emerges each spring from the windowless dungeons beneath Benedum Hall. A synergistic product of human effort, advanced technology and gasoline, the 400-pound beast steers its way toward Detroit, where it competes to shower glory on its creators — a crew of mostly Pitt undergraduate mechanical engineers.
But this year, an unexpected game change threatens to strain the cycle of creative progress.
A rubber roadblock
Building race cars is a fast-paced way of life for the members of Pitt’s Formula Society for Automotive Engineers club, the craftsmen behind the seasonal Benedum beast. “We start from scratch every year,” junior John Conturo said.
From the final flag of the May tournament at the Michigan International Speedway, seen as the culminating finish line by the 120 or so collegiate Formula SAE teams that compete in the tournament, the Pitt team steps on next year’s gas pedal.
It has fewer than 12 months to design prototypes, run simulations, gather parts, assemble structure, test performance, fix problems and redo performance tests in order to produce a new automobile for the following competition.
“A year is not a long time to build one of these,” said senior Andrew Frank, vice president of the club.
With such time challenges already on their minds, many teams — including Pitt’s — have a new wrench to pry from the gears of scheduling: They have to find different tires for the 2012-2013 season. That’s because on Sept. 13, Goodyear, a tire manufacturer and long-time sponsor of the Formula SAE collegiate program, pulled its 13-inch tires from the competition.
“It was obvious based on the research we’ve done if we wanted to remain competitive, we should have developed a 10-inch tire,” Goodyear spokesman Kerry Christopher said, referring to the 10-inch tire diameter.
After determining that future production of the 10-inch tires or the already popular 13-inch tires would not make cost-benefit sense, Goodyear ceased production of Formula SAE tires altogether. “We have not made any [Formula SAE tires] at this point,” Christopher said.
Tournament organizer SAE International estimates this change could substantially affect the 24 percent of competing teams that used Goodyear 13-inch tires in 2012.
But the significance of teams having to procure different tires might be lost on all but car gurus. For folks uninitiated into the ethos of automotive enthusiasm, tires might appear as rubber afterthoughts in the context of other car parts — e.g., engine, axle.
On the contrary, Pitt’s Formula team contends that tires deserve more respect.
“The tires are the only way that the car is connected to the ground,” said club president Steven Karkenny, emphasizing how tires must stabilize several tons of weight with about as much surface area as a pair of shoe soles.
Given the intimate relationship between tires and the road, “One of the things we design the car around is the tires,” he said. “You want to make sure you design your car so that it uses [the tires’] grip to its full potential.”
Like the premise of a logical proof, tires form the basis from which all design decisions follow, so changing tire brands after four months into the 2012-2013 design process amounts to no minor substitution.
“Each tire, depending on the manufacturer, has different properties,” Karkenny said. “They react in different ways. The way that they grip the road can be a little bit different, and the positions that they like to be in can be different.”
The position that tires “like” refers to the optimal slip angles that typify tires. When the steering wheel turns while a car is in motion, all tires slip to some degree, meaning that the direction of the car’s resulting movement differs from the front wheels’ intended direction. This difference in direction defines the slip angle, which varies between tire types and, under changing force conditions, within a single tire type.
Therefore, the main goal of designing the car’s structural frame “is to keep the tire at the correct slip angle and to keep it so that as much tire is contacting the ground as possible,” Karkenny said. “It’s a big geometry problem.”
Getting over the hump
Solving that geometry problem will consume much of the Pitt Formula group’s focus over the next few weeks. The team must collaboratively pore over data on the new tires — regarding slip angles and other measures — then plug those data into computer simulations and make necessary adjustments to the car design. Despite the novelty of the tire dilemma and the time pressures it implies for testing the car on the track, Frank is hopeful.
“We’re always troubleshooting, always finding problems and finding ways to fix them,” he said.
Frank’s hope might stem from the vast resources Pitt SAE has at its disposal. In addition to its shop in the sub-basement of Benedum Hall, the club receives tens of thousands of dollars in funding from Pitt’s Student Government Board, support from the Swanson School of Engineering and various sponsors along with access to high-tech machines throughout Benedum and outside the University.
Two of these machines in particular allow the team to 3-D print custom plastic and metal components, which they first design with special computer software.
“We get to use these technologies, which are very cool,” Karkenny said.
However, money, space and fancy equipment don’t spawn race cars on their own. Led by a cadre of student veterans and faculty adviser William Slaughter, about 50 engineering undergrads provide that link in 2012.
Operating as a kind of collegiate cottage industry, Pitt SAE features a network of masters and apprentices working together to create and preserve knowledge and practices across generations of students. Sophomore Ali Schroer, new to the club, experiences the apprentice side firsthand.
“I’ll come down whenever I don’t have class, provided someone else is down here who knows what they’re doing and can give me a job,” Schroer said.
Without expecting paychecks or victory at the competition, club members commit large personal investments, especially as May approaches.
“We spend plenty of all-nighters down here,” said drive-train subteam leader Conturo, noting how members commonly lose track of time. “We just know by when Pandora shuts off.”
Students burn midnight candles in the name of automotive engineering for various reasons. The love of competition drives some.
“Being able to design something and show up with something that can compete with those teams and those other engineers that are all brilliant is kind of a neat experience,” Frank said.
Thoughts of future jobs drive others, as club involvement has provided former Pitt SAE members with marketable skills in private industry.
“Since its conception 27 years ago, everyone who’s been a senior member of the club has had a job when they graduated,” said senior chemical engineering major Andrew Decker, who also leads the club’s aerodynamics and ergonomics subteam. “100 percent job placement.”
Building race cars in college also excites students on an intellectual level. That’s especially true for Schroer. Much like the brain scientist stands agape at the bewildering complexity of his neurological subject, Schroer derives enjoyment out of making the car the object of her curiosity.
“Whenever someone hands me something new, and it’s got a bajillion and one things going on, I want to know exactly what’s going on with every single little thing,” she said. “And it’s nice because this car offers infinitely many chances to do that.”
For Karkenny, who’s been with the club for four years, driving the final product tops his list of motivators.
“Being at the limit of control, I love that feeling,” he said, noting how last year’s car could accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in 3.5 seconds. “Imagine a rollercoaster that you can control.”
