TUE URE19: Where Innovation Hits the Track

The team of University Racing Eindhoven of this year consists of more than 80 motivated students, working towards a common goal. This is to make the URE19 the fastest and best performing car of URE to date. In a full year of development and production, a super fast, electric Formula-one style race car is built. During the summer we push it to the limit at the Formula Student competitions.

The Formula Student competition features teams from all over the world that dedicate their time to build a formula one style race car and compete against each other. In this journey they push the boundaries of the technology and learn a lot doing it.

University Racing Eindhoven is no different. The biggest goal this year is to reduce weight of the car. Making this happen electrically means capturing the essence of the system and designing compact solutions to fulfil its needs effectively.

The main point of attention is the battery management system (BMS). The current solution uses a combination of 3 rather large PCBs to achieve the full functionality of the BMS. This is not optimal for packaging, weight and reliability in the accumulator. That is why these PCBs will be integrated fully into one small-elegant solution.

The BMS is responsible for ensuring the safety of the accumulator at all times. This entails monitoring cell voltages, temperatures and communication. Any persistent issue will results in a safe state of the system where high voltage is removed from the car. It is the most important PCB regarding safety of the car.

The communication is handled using three Controller Area Network (CAN) busses. 12 slave modules send high-frequent cell data towards the BMS to process and compare. The BMS ensure the cell limits are never overridden longer than 500 or 1000ms for voltage and temperature respectively. Besides this, the intended high voltage status is constantly monitored and verified to be able to detect a fault in the relay switching.

The unique partnership with Eurocircuits allows us to quickly prototype and verify our design before it makes its way into the car. Especially for a safety critical PCB like the BMS, it is a crucial step in the design process. Being able to make use of the PCB Proto services’ fast delivery time increases the rate our engineers can iterate on their design.

This season, URE will take on two major events: Formula Student Germany and Formula Student Netherlands. The Dutch competition holds a special place for us, as it will be the very last edition – and we’re determined to make it a race to remember. In Germany, we’ll be competing in both the EV and DV classes, going head-to-head with some of the most prestigious teams in Europe.

For more information please visit the TUE URE website.