UBC Formula Electric
Student Engineering Design Team
UBC Formula Electric is a student engineering design team, out of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, with the set goal to design and construct a fully electric open-wheel Formula-style race car each year and compete internationally against other universities and colleges.
The team made up of engineering, science, and business students is motivated by the shared passion for creating a world that thrives by way of technological innovation and environmental sustainability.
The team’s electrical captain Geoff Goodwin-Wilson and his team utilized their PSIM sponsorship license to design a bespoke inverter in order to achieve a 4 wheel drivetrain.
“PSIM was instrumental in designing the control system and selecting hardware components in the build, such as the Silicon Carbide FETs and the DC-Link capacitors.
We were able to input data from our lap simulation into PSIM, and using a mathematical model of our vehicle we could predict how it behaves during different racing conditions. From simulation results, we understand our thermal system, efficiency, and operating characteristics of the inverter.”
“After validating the system functionality, we wrote C code blocks in PSIM to represent our control system. After validation of the C code, we were ready to implement the controls on our microcontroller. The implementation was successful, and we were able to spin our motor using our custom controls – designed completely in PSIM.”
“Our favorite aspect of PSIM is the ease of quickly getting an accurate simulation running for almost any motor setup. The motor control design suite in PSIM allowed us to generate a stable bare-bones control architecture for our IPMSM motor, and then add the bells and whistles from there.
Additionally, PSIM offers a lot of versatility. For example, by running in-depth thermal simulations on our SiC FET package, we were able to predict the junction temperature of the semiconductor device during any operating condition.
For any questions we had about PSIM, comprehensive tutorials were available on YouTube, and all features are well documented in the software. PSIM was also very responsive in answering our application-specific inquiries.”
We from Powersim are wishing the team great successes in the upcoming racing season and are proud to be able to help them to achieve their goals.
If you want to learn more about the team and stay informed about what they are up to you can follow them on Instagram @ubcformulaelectric or check out their team website.
