FSAE - EV Electric Powertrain Design
FSAE - EV Electric Powertrain Design
Reduced powertrain overall volume by 56.8%, and decreased total weight by 23.8% with a next-gen redesign.
Improved design of motor shaft and sprocket adapter to decrease overall rotational mass and improve power delivery.
New design was validated through structural FEA showing a margin of safety of over 2.07, and approximately fifty three million cycle of life from a fatigue analysis.
UAH's FSAE-EV program is a senior design course for mechanical, aerospace, and electrical engineering students, split into sub teams (suspension/chassis, driver inputs, accumulator, powertrain) working to build a competition-ready electric race car. Each team has two semesters, fall and spring, to improve the vehicle before handing off to the next group.
I worked on the Powertrain sub team for the 2025-2026 year, tasked with making the electric powertrain fully operational and FSAE-compliant, while also developing an improved next-generation powertrain for integration with a new chassis, addressing known inefficiencies through better chain tensioning, tighter packaging, and weight reduction.
Current Vehicle: Led CAD design of the powertrain assembly, including the motor shaft, sprocket adapter, dashboard, and chain guard, using Autodesk Inventor.
Next-Gen Redesign: Designed the next-generation powertrain for the new chassis, optimizing packaging and structural integration, and selected a turnbuckle-style chain tensioner for improved adjustability.
Problem-Solving: Diagnosed and resolved a slipping motor shaft connection with a machined keyway fix, and redesigned the sprocket adapter to fix mounting interference and reduce mass.
Validation: Performed structural and fatigue FEA on redesigned components, confirming safety factors above 2.07 and a predicted fatigue life of fifty three million cycles.