Formula One - The Engineering Race Evolution in virtual & physical testing over the last 15 years Torbjörn Larsson Creo Dynamics AB
How F1 has influenced CAE development by pushing boundaries working at the bleeding edge But now lost the edge? Torbjörn Larsson Creo Dynamics AB
Starting Grid P1 Altair & Creo Dynamics P2 Introduction to Formula One P3 Aerodynamics P4 Evolution of CFD in F1 P5 Supercomputing The haydays and the future P6 Beating the rules The DNA of F1
CFD @ Creo Dynamics Built upon philosophy, technology and lessons learned in F1 Leverage via networking and technical collaboration with academia and industry 5
Evolution of F1 cars since 1950 Red cars only 6
Car Shape Evolution Formula One is a highly regulated sport and the car basic dimensions are dictated by the FIA technical regulations. Car shaping is primarily driven by aerodynamic efficiency. 7
Car Shape Evolution 2009 Rule Change of FIA Technical Regulation The immediate effect; a dramatic loss of downforce (~50%) 2009 2008 8
The Performance of the Package Driver Grip - Tyres, Suspension, etc. Vehicle Mass and Centre of Gravity Engine and Transmission of Power Aerodynamics Electronics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics
Effect of Performance Factors on Lap Time % CHANGE IN LAP TIME +5% of Tyre Grip Average = -1.62-5% of Weight Average = -0.96 +5% of Power Average = -0.74 +5% Aerodynamic Efficiency = -0.52
Aerodynamics 2009 11
Aerodynamics Flow Physics Strong vorticies and wake flow Separated flows High lifting wings Ground effect Flow interactions Shape Complexity Geometrical details Large range of scales Small clearances (ground, tire seals) Deformations and aero-elastic effects 12
Aerodynamics Aerodynamics Performance Propels the Development in Formula One Extremely high development pace Continuous and incremental design evolution Combined use of physical and virtual testing (Track, WT, CFD) State-of-the-art technology Ultra-competitive industry which has become a competition in engineering excellence. F1 has acted as catalyst in developing state-of-the-art CFD techniques over the last decade. Having the upper hand in simulation driven design is key to success in F1. 13
CFD Requirements High development pace Short turn-around time required for CFD to have an influence Incremental design approach Sufficient accuracy and fidelity in the CFD results required to pick-up the correct trends from sequences of small design changes Conflicting and challenging constraints! 14
CFD Formula One - an Early Adopter of New Technology Large scale unstructured meshing Parallel efficiency of meshing, solving and post-processing tools Moving mesh and mesh morphing algorithms Efficient solvers and solving schemes Tuning and tailoring of turbulence models (high-lifting wings, transition, wake flows) Adjoint solvers FSI Automation and scripting 15
Simulation Tools Track Testing
Simulation Tools Wind Tunnel & CFD Extremely high development pace Teams operating with ~100 people to support the aerodynamics development in the wind tunnel Wind tunnels run 24/7 (not true anymore) Very short project lead times New parts on the car for every race (every 2nd weekend)
Evolution of CFD Usage in F1 The past? 18
Supercomputing in F1 The race begins.. In 2005 the Sauber F1 team introduced Albert 530 cores 2 TFlops 19
Supercomputing in F1 The race begins.. 2006 Albert 2 1024 cores 12 TFlops (#60 on Top 500 list) 2008 Albert 3 4224 cores 58 TFlops (#45 on Top 500 list) 20
Supercomputing in F1 The race begins.. Formula 1 Supercomputer Championship 2008 (by TFLOPS) BMW Sauber F1 Team: Albert3, 4224 cores (Intel Xeon) Renault F1 Team: Appro Xtreme-X2, 1024 sockets, 4096 cores (AMD QC Opteron) Ferrari : Acer/IBM/Racksaver, 1000+ processor sockets (upgrading to QC Opteron) McLaren: Silicon Graphics Altix, 512 Sockets, 1024 cores (Intel Itanium 2) Red Bull: IBM, 512 sockets, 1024 core (upgrading to AMD QC Opteron) Toyota F1 Team: Fujitsu, 320 Sockets, 640 cores (Intel Itanium 2) WilliamsF1: Lenovo Unnamed, 332 Sockets, 664 cores (Intel Xeon 5100) Honda F1 Racing: SGI Altix ICE, unknown number of socket/cores, water-cooled Quad-Core Intel Xeon Toro Rosso: N/A (uses Red Bull infrastructure) Super Aguri: N/A (uses Honda F1 infrastructure) Force India: Rental system (unknown specifications) 21
FIA & FOTA rules Bigger computers, new wind tunnels the costs of F1 are escalating Budget Cap? Limit Testing? FOTA 2009 FOTA imposed limitations on aerodynamic testing and CFD. 22
FIA New Technical Regulations 2009 Driving forces behind the new regulations Cost reduction (FOTA) Improve the on-track spectacle promote overtaking Decrease reliance on aerodynamic downforce and increase mechanical grip with the aim of making wheel-to-wheel racing easier 23
FOTA Rules Wind tunnel & CFD limits Sauber 2008 24
FOTA Rules Implications on hardware What is TFLOPS? 10 12 Floating Point Operations per Second FLOPS = Clock X Operations/Cycle X Cores (Theoretical Peak Performance) CPU Clock (GHz) operations/clock no of cores/socket TFLOPS Intel E5 2699 2,3 16 18 0,6624 With a budget cap at 25 Tflops, teams would be maxed out at 38 CPUs (or 679 cores)! 25
FOTA Rules Implications on hardware Already in 2008, teams were operating 4000+ cores clusters. Today - are they running much smaller clusters? Not necessarily, Formula One is all about beating the regulations. FLOPS = Clock X Operations/cycle X Cores (Theoretical Peak Performance) What counts is the simulation through-put. So, the question becomes; How can one design and optimize a HW/SW combo that maximizes through-put at minimum FLOPS? 26
Have F1 lost the edge? Exponential growth of supercomputing power - Top 500 List The rest of the world is advancing CFD and HPC, tackling ever larger and more complex problems, taking full benefit of latest technology and Moore s Law. 27
Contact Details Torbjorn.Larsson@creodynamics.com Creo Dynamics AB Linköping Westmansgatan 37A SE-582 16 Linköping Sweden www.creodynamics.com