The ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport will start the second sesaon of the FIA Formula E championship with an all-new car, developed with CSM Measurement Technology. For the development of new components of the race car, four measurement modules and one data logger have been made available by CSM. The entire drive train along with the engine, gearbox, inverter and cooling, as well as the chassis, have also been redesigned.
“The FIA Formula E is an important stimulus for the development of more efficient engine and drive train concepts in the area of e-mobility. We are delighted to be able to support this development with our measurement technology”, emphasises Christoph Mühleis, head of product management and marketing at CSM GmbH.
When developing the Formula E car, ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport mounted the CSM measurement modules directly to the traction battery of the vehicle for test bench tests and during test drives to carry out the required measurements.
When designing new components for the chassis, the mechanical stress on the push rods of the suspension was measured with an STGMM strain gauge measurement module. Since cooling plays an important role for the energy efficiency of electric engines, a PTMM temperature measurement module has been used to improve the cooling system of the drive train, and for measuring the temperature of the oil and the cooling water. In order to keep the height as low as possible, several laser distance sensors have been connected to two CSM ADMM measurement modules to calculate the optimum distance between the vehicle floor to the road surface.
“We are highly satisfied with the CSM measurement devices. Thanks to the ease of installation, we could always flexibly adapt the measurement setups to the measurement tasks and what’s more, there were no failures in the modules, although they were exposed to high stresses. During the test drives the modules were exposed to acceleration forces of up to 5g”, explains Jens Häberle, technical manager e-mobility at the ABT Sportsline GmbH.
