To design and manufacture a car within six months is no mean feat, especially when the car in question will be on the Formula One grid next season and you have the legacy of Enzo Ferrari weighing down on your shoulders. Most people associate Ferrari with Marinello in Italy and would be surprised to hear that there is a British Ferrari Research & Development Team that is actually based in deepest darkest stockbroker country – in Shalford, near Guildford, Surrey. At this plant, 43 individuals sweat blood and tears over the design and prototyping of the chassis for those famous Italian red cars. Given the fact that it takes on average at least seven years to transform a concept car into a road car, whereas Formula One teams are up against a deadline of just six months, and any help to speed up the design and conceptualisation process is obviously welcomed. To assist in this race against time, most design teams use computer-aided design packages for various stages of the design process.

Aerodynamic

ComputerVision Corp’s CADDS 5, which Ferrari beta tested, is one of main software packages it uses to take some of the pain away from the design process. Before the beginning of the season, the team starts off with a more or less clean slate; draughtsmen, designers and engineers then sit down and work on the model for the following season. Andy Willard, systems manager at Ferrari, estimates that 70% to 80% of the final drawings are still done by hand. But once you’ve got a rough idea of what you want on paper, it’s time to start manipulating designs on the screen. This can be done by one of two methods; surface modelling or solid modelling; Ferrari uses a hybrid of the two. Surface models work out the mathematical equations for those smooth sexy surface curves that give a racing car its aerodynamic characteristics. Ferrari uses the Non-Uniform Rational BSplines or NURBS, software component within CADDS5 for this job. However, design engineers have to know whether those curves are physically possible to construct; enter solid modelling. Solid modelling software defines the topology or hierarchical structure of the model. All solids have a topology, which the software recognises as a space that will link one line to another. The algorithms within the CADDS5 solid modelling software work on the principle of manifold topology, which basically says that every edge of a solid has only two surfaces associated with it. Using this design logic, designers can ascertain whether a particular part of the fuel cell, say, is physically possible to construct.

On Sunday we’ll be glued to the television screen around lunchtime as the top two teams, Benetton and Williams, battle it out for the F1 constructor’s championship at the Grand Prix of Europe in Jerez, Spain, while the fast-improving number three team, Ferrari tries to steal their thunder: on this page, Krishna Roy describes the design techniques used by Ferrari, while alongside, we have a report on how artificial intelligence from Bull supplements the skills of the Renault engineers at the Williams Renault team, based on a piece by Claire Remy for 01 Informatique, translated by Abigail Waraker.

The software also has the intelligence to recognise that the part is solid: therefore designers can manipulate the model as if it were in a solid state. The geometric design tool with the package also has a parametric dimension built into it, which, according to Willard, enables you to play three dimensional chess with the image on screen. Parametric modelling software enables you to look at the relationship between the dimensions in the model, you can therefore change one dimension within that model and see the visual effect it has on the overall shape and structure. Parametric modelling, according to Willard, dilutes the design process because it takes some of the skill away from the designer. However, it is useful because it is automatic and therefore faster than explict modelling tools, which will scale every parameter in exact proportion to the change in one dimension, and in so doing al

low little scope for free-form design. By this stage of the design process the car may look good but the team needs to know how is it going to perform. This is where design analysis software comes into play. Ferrari uses PDA Engineering Inc’s Patran 3 Finite Element Analysis software to analyse the computer model and test parts of the chassis for stress concentration points. In this way the designers can see by colour graduation depicted on screen exactly how much pressure can be exerted on a wishbone fork, for example, before it will become deformed and eventually break. Dynamics analysis can also be tested on screen. Ferrari uses Rasna Corp’s Dynamic Analysis software to analyse the dynamic movement of suspension beams on the chassis to see how the car will ride. At this stage the model has to move from conceptualisation to prototyping. Many large car designers and manufacturers, such as Rolls Royce, use concurrent engineering software to avoid endless prototyping and testing of parts. But Ferrari in Britain is sufficiently small to be able to work concurrently without the need for a sophisticated software package; designers, draughtsmen and engineers just talk to each other and then commit in stages to the manufacturing process. Once the team is satisfied with the prototype it is necessary to get down to manufacturing that part.

Wind tunnel

Ferrari’s CADDS5 package has CVNC Numerical Control Software which will work out the cutting tool path movements needed in order for the lathe and mill to machine that part. This tool path motion is then converted from design language form into the controller specific language by Ferrari’s Post Processing Software. Ferrari DNC software then directly accesses this data and communicates it to the machine cutting equipment, which can then cut and machine the part. Ferrari are aiming to build an analysis model on the back of its CAD/CAM package so that certain elements of the design logic can be extracted from the finished model for future reuse, but it needs to swell its coffers first. Ferrari is also keen to stress that computer packages can never replace mechanical testing, no matter how sophisticated the software is. At the end of the day Ferrari always goes back to the wind tunnel to substantiate test carried out on computer because when you’re in a car pulling 4G anything can happen.