Spearheading in-house carbon fiber composite fabrication and Ansys Fluent aerodynamic validation for the TSAE2027 Formula Student race car to drastically reduce aero package weight.
In previous seasons, the Formula Student team outsourced aerodynamic package fabrication to external shops. This vendor-dependent workflow resulted in heavily overbuilt, overweight components with limited iterative agility. Facing the challenge of having no team members with prior end-to-end composite manufacturing experience, we committed to bringing the entire tooling, molding, and layup process in-house to aggressively cut vehicle mass.
We evaluated both resin infusion and wet hand layup with vacuum bagging, standardizing on the vacuum bagging method for its balance of operational simplicity, laminate consolidation, and rapid turnaround. Steady-state aerodynamic performance was verified in Ansys Fluent under standard competition airspeed (16.67 m/s ≈ 60 km/h).
Key Engineering Takeaway
"Taking composite manufacturing entirely in-house from raw foam tooling to cured carbon fiber wings proved that hands-on process ownership is the most reliable path to maximizing strength while shedding unnecessary race car weight."
Establishing this internal composites workflow has eliminated external vendor reliance and created a repeatable manufacturing standard for future vehicle designs. Fabrication of the critical primary wing planes is actively underway, laying the groundwork for integrated aerodynamic testing in the TSAE2027 season.