A design of electric drive system for all-wheel drive Formula Student racing car to improve racing performance

This paper introduces an innovative in-wheel electric drive system designed for all-wheel drive Formula Student Electric racing cars. The system utilized AMK's DD5-14-10-POW-18600-B5 model as the driving motor, with a gearbox transmission ratio of 13.2 determined through Optimum Lap simulation. A two-stage gear reducer was integrated into a unified hub-spoke assembly, which connected directly to the ten-inch carbon fiber rim. The planetary carriers were integrated with the wheel-edge suspension columns, and certain structural components were topologically optimized using Altair Inspire. This integration allowed the entire electric drive system to be housed within the wheel, resulting in a weight reduction of over 10% and an improvement in overall aerodynamic performance by approximately 5%, compared to conventional designs where the planetary gearboxes are integrated within the suspension columns. Meanwhile, a special floating brake disc mounting method was employed, which increased the brake disc's heat capacity by more than 15% compared to traditional rivet-fixed floating brake discs, thereby enhancing the brake disc's heat dissipation performance. Throughout the design process, the strength and stiffness of each subsystem were simulated using ANSYS. Furthermore, MASTA was employed to construct the overall reducer model, simulate the transmission system, and optimize gear modifications, ensuring the safety and reliability of the electric drive system. To further guarantee effective gear lubrication within the gearbox, a gearbox model was built based on the Particleworks platform, and a gearbox lubrication simulation was performed. To further verify the effect, we will make an electric drive system test bench and apply it to the 2025 season racing car of the WUTE team of Wuhan University of Technology and participated in the Formula Student Electric China (FSEC).