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Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1991. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-195). Also available via the Internet.

Formula One race cars have to pass rigorous safety tests before they are allowed on track. This type of testing has been in place for years but the requirements for testing are continually increasing in order to reduce the amount of risk to the drivers’ safety during a race. The number of structures that need to be made and tested can quickly make this process an expensive one. Additionally, it is necessary to pass the mandated tests within a reasonable amount of time so as not to have an impact on the development on the rest of the car. There is a desire to reduce the number of structures needed for testing through finite element analysis (FEA), and as such, to reduce the time needed to pass the safety tests. FEA of laminated composites can be complex and is a balance between accuracy and the time it takes to find a solution. The current project looks into increasing understanding of the requirements for material characterisation, experimental impact testing, and explicit simulation of a carbon fibre fabric pre-impregnated with epoxy resin. Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix (MGP) Formula One Team has provided a pre-preg material for evaluation. Material experiments were performed per the American Society for Materials and Testing (ASTM) in order to find the tensile modulus, tensile strength, Poisson’s ratio, compressive strength, shear modulus, and shear strength of the material. Nine tubes were manufactured at MGP and tested in the drop tower at the Cranfield Impact Centre (CIC) ... [cont.].

Thesis (M Reg & Urb Plan)--University of South Australia, 1997

Electronic communication is becoming an integral part of the communication structure within organisations, but the costs and benefits are not being assessed. Communication by email is usually assumed to be an efficient and effective means of sending messages. However, on analysis the process is seen to be much more complex and much less efficient than is normally assumed. Communication is carried out in many different forms, but the common underlying motive of communication is to improve working practices and to increase productivity. As communication pervades nearly everything we do, even small improvements in the effectiveness and cost of our communication processes can have significant benefits. The aim of this research was to analyse the cost effectiveness of using email and to suggest ways in which the cost effectiveness can be improved. A number of studies have been conducted into the cost effectiveness of email within organisations. The studies were carried out mainly at the Danwood Group, the company sponsoring the author's PhD research. The Danwood Group has just over 500 employees at 19 sites around the UK and its head office is based in Lincoln, where all of the email case studies in this thesis where undertaken. The Danwood Group retails office equipment, predominately photocopiers. Email behaviour was monitored by the use of software at the Danwood Group. This raised a number of questions on the ethical issues of electronic monitoring. This thesis explores these issues and proposes a set of guidelines to allow electronic monitoring within strict professional and ethical guidelines. The Danwood Group studies examined how and when email was used. It was found that, when the company first started using email, over two thirds of messages were non-business-related, though this dropped to less than half in a few months. It was also found that many messages could be delivered in one line of text. A one-line message service was introduced and this was found to save employee time for both senders and receivers of the messages. A costing formula was developed measuring the human cost of operating email messaging. The final study was to determine how long it took employees to recover and return to normal work after an email interruption and this was compared with published data for telephone interrupts. From these results a set of guidelines were developed to enable companies to make the most efficient use of email. The thesis concludes by identifying further areas of research into email usage that would help give a better understanding of methods to enable email to become even more cost effective.

Motorsport has become a multidisciplinary sport in which skilled engineers and strategists play as big a part in the team’s success as the athlete driving the car. In Formula One it is common practice for teams to have dedicated resources on the track that are supported by a second team back at the home base who analyses telemetry data and performs simulations to refine the racing strategy. Optimal control calculations are typically used to optimise vehicle setup parameters (such as ride height and heave spring stiffness) and driver inputs (such as braking and steering) specific to each track. Traditionally this approach has been employed by minimising time over a single lap. Although this is useful in qualifying simulations, there is an unexplored element of optimising a vehicle’s "race pace". Drivers complete qualifying laps using minimal fuel with new tyres to get the best possible lap time but this performance cannot be sustained throughout the whole race. Drivers need to manage their tyres so that they do not wear prematurely and have a detrimental effect on their performance. This work places an emphasis on tyre modelling and in particular how optimal control can be used to optimise a tyre management strategy. A model has been presented that reduces grip as a function of tyre wear. This ensures that the qualifying pace cannot be sustained indefinitely. A thermodynamic model consisting of two states (surface and carcass temperature) is used to calculate tyre wear, which ultimately dictates how much grip can be provided by each tyre. The objective function for the optimal control problem is to minimise time over multiple laps and the absolute tyre wear (in mm tread) is constrained to a predefined limit. This ensures that the consequences of pushing the car to its limits are considered: overheating temperatures and accelerated wear will be detrimental to racing performance. The optimal control solver needs to manage the tyre temperatures carefully over a racing distance. It has been shown that lap times degrade more severely as the tyres reach the end of their life. At some point in the race this drop off in performance will render the car uncompetitive and strategists can use this model to evaluate the performance of different tyre compounds at each track and to strategically plan pit stops during a race. / Dissertation (MEng (Electronic Engineering))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / MEng (Electronic Engineering) / Unrestricted

The feasibility of replacing currently widely used sandwich construction with helically stiffened construction for a Formula racing car structural shell is studied. The torsional deformation behavior of circular and square cross-section shells is analyzed as an approximation to the real car structure. Shells with different sandwich and helically stiffened configurations are analyzed with finite elements. For closed square and circular cross-section shells, the highest torsional stiffness is obtained with helical stiffening. For circular cross-section shells with the cockpit cutout and reinforcements usually present in real racing car structural shells, ±4S' helically stiffened shells are 200% stiffer in torsion than sandwich shells. For square cross-section shells, the torsional stiffness improvement obtained with the helical stiffening is only 27%. The cross-sectional shape of the shell, cockpit opening, and different type of reinforcements (present in a real car structure) affects the selection of the best stiffening for torsional stiffness. The role of the terms of the stiffness matrix of the helically stiffened configuration in the torsional behavior of the shells is studied. The 0/90 waffle stiffening is more efficient than the helical stiffening for the square cross-section shells with the cutout and reinforcements. In the case of circular cross-section shells, the 0/90 waffle stiffening yields approximately the same results than the helical stiffening. The skin-stiffener configuration for maximum torsional stiffness depends on the crosssectional shape of the shell. The advantages of the ±45° helical stiffening over the sandwich construction depend on the cross-sectional shape of the shell and on the way the cutout region is reinforced. / Master of Science

This qualitative study examined the psychological demands of Formula One Racing, and the psychological skills former Formula One drivers utilized to meet those demands. The participants were nine former drivers, from six different countries, who have competed in at least one Formula One World Drivers Championship grand prix. The qualitative data were gathered using a semi-structured interview framework, developed by the researcher, to explore the psychological skills established from other validated psychological skills questionnaires, such as the Test of Performance Strategies, (Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy, 1999). Eight of the interviews were done via Skype, and one interview was performed in person. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and then sent to the participants to make any edits or corrections. Once the transcriptions were approved, the data were coded by the researcher using constant comparative methods as described in Charmaz (2006). Three phases of coding resulted in four themes and 14 sub-themes. The themes that emerged include: (1) Applied Sport Psychology in Formula One, (2) Psychological Skills, (3) Uncontrollable Aspects of Competition, (4) Career Components. Drivers used various psychological skills in a focused effort to aid their performance. Drivers discussed the important role psychology plays in their sport, and the psychological resources available to them during their career. Drivers discussed the danger element of their competition, and how they and their competitors managed the fear associated with racing. The drivers in this study competed in an era that was much more dangerous than the current era of Formula One racing (Barnes, 2013). The drivers' use of psychological skills, and perceptions of sport psychology, may guide consultants working with race car drivers and those working with other populations that have similar psychological and physical demands. / Kinesiology

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Regensburg, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.