Jaden Zhang
UT27 - Formula SAE Racecar
University of Toronto Formula racing design team (UTFR)
Since its inception in 1997, the University of Toronto Formula Racing Team (UTFR) has undertaken the task of building a formula-style, open-wheel electric race car from scratch annually to compete in North American and European FSAE events. For the 2026-2027 season, the primary vehicle mandate is realizing a true 4wd system - overcoming the gearbox limitations of UT26 - while pushing the boundaries of mass reduction and front-end packaging efficiency.
As the Steering & Brakes Lead for UT27, responsibilities center on critical decision-making, team mentorship, and system-level architecture. Technical targets for this season include driving a rigorous subsystem mass reduction from 8.436kg to 6.766kg, and overhauling the brakes pedal tray with a reverse floor-mounted master and EBS cylinder layout to accomodate more efficient front chassis packaging. To achieve more accurate load applications for a new GD/DMLS steering column mount, a custom load assessment assembly is being integrated directly into the Driver-in-the-Loop (DiL) interface.
Beyond engineering design, I put a core focus is placed on cultivating the next generation of team members. This involves establishing structured knowledge transfer pipelines, with one of the major soft chages that I am applying being the individual clear documentation of every subsystem in Steering & Brakes.
Key Skills: Catia/3DExperience Environment, Solidworks components/assemblies, Ansys FEA, Fusion 360 Generative Design, knowledge transfer/documentation aggregation
Bobbins Transient Fatigue FEA
September 2026
As part of optimizing our entire vehicle package, our hub gear ratios are under heavy design considerations by our Suspension and Drivetrain departments. As such, packaging of the brake rotors and brake calipers are under scrutiny as well. As such, to accomodate the decision to expand the hub outwards by ~4mm in diameters, the floating brake discs, mounted by disc bobbins, would need to be expanded outwards.
Since the brake rotor area is already quite minimal, as dictated by our caliper choice, investigation into shrinking the bobbins by ~2mm in diameters each, while increasing bobbin count to retain similar rigidity. This FEA was also backed by testing data of braking torque, allowing us to evaluate lifetime by number of laps till failure.
- Transient structural analysis of 8x small bobbins (compared to UT26 6x larger bobbins design) to validate new packaging, with proper multi-material consideration
- Using Ansys Fatigue Tool to evaluate life of small aluminum brake bobbins with scaled lap data
- 2D Ansys FEA evaluation of brake bobbin mounting with proper friction contact points between brake hubs, bobbins and brake rotors
- Usage of RaceStudio3 to evaulate and export lap data through testing AutoX (GoKart style) race tracks
Fatigue life tool of Ansys used to evaluate bobbin minimum lifetime based on # of laps, using actual scaled testing data.
Force for braking is centralized to just the top piston patch. This is to represent a worst case scenario with stress is incredibly concentrated and lockup occurs immediately.
3D Experience CATIA CAD Organization
August 2026 - Present
After the 2025-2026 racing season, the UTFR racing team has decided to switch over CAD software 3DExperience CATIA. This section presents some of our organizational and implementation choices of our CAD structure. A major reason this switch from Solidworks was made was for much better PLM and administrative control, as well as much more collabortive cloud support.
- CAD In Catia 3DExperience using team-wide publications of structural and kinematic hardpoints through standard 3DX operations
- Management of multiple skeleton parts to centralize and ensure stability of large assemblies (~ 200 parts)
- Enterprise part number and structure management of mutliple subsystem assemblies, and using publishing and Schemes/Latest Schemes file organization
- Skeleton Part usage for linkage based product assemblies, being the UT27 (WIP) steering system
Main steering "Latest Schemes" assembly, being the fully published and publicised components. In-work components are held in Schemes folders. 3D wireframe and points (steering skeleton) are published to products.
3D point and publications of points used to reference parts throughout sections - pictured are chassis cutout locations for mounting hole locations in welded inserts in tubes, published from Steering Skeleton.
Steering Skeleton, pictured with chassis publications and steering native key points (eg clevis mounting point)
Minimum Viable Product Steering Column Load Assessment
August 2026
With the switch to a DMLS metal 3D printed steering column mount, more accurate loads should be developed. Previously, maximum gym output numbers were used for 95% male. However, these exercises are not perfectly reflective of loads on the car, especially with the reclined position of the driver.
Within a week and a half, we developed a load assessment assembly using components already present in the shop, including a hanging (fishing) scale found unused in a drawer. This assembly allowed us to get more accurate loads, while also costing zero extra expenses.
In Collaboration with: Rebecca Duarte. Under UTFR.
- CAD and building of a steering input load asssessment system in 3D Experience CATIA
- Rapid prototyping of MVPs, using preexisting resources and avoiding lead times where possible
- Adaptation of a Driver-in-loop (driving sim) system to accomodate effectively a load cell using the hanging scale
- Incorporation of aluminum sheet metal and 3D printed smooth bushings to concentrate loads on the scale
Driver-in-loop, sitting in the assembly.
Physical assembly of load assessment rig. Made of existing sheet metal, hanging scale, and leftover bolts
Push/pull, right/left load assessment orientation of load cell.
Vertical load assessment setups. Since a hanging scale is ineffective in this case, a typical flat scale is used
Data points collected from assessment session, used to optimize design of steerign column mount.
UT26 Vehicle Controls Design Binder
July 2025 - July 2026
As a part of my goals to streamline and document more design choices for effective knowledge transfer, a high level overview of the entire vehicle controls (brakes & steering) was consolidated into a 26 page design binder. Additionally, the documents acts as a hub that links to other relevant documentation for recruits and other section members, such as basics of brakes load transfer, and steering load calculations.
In collaboration with: Mo Taban, David Li under UTFR.
- Clear and technical language to formally document design choices and justification for effective future reference and knowledge transfer
- Simulated vehicle weight transfers as a function of braking force, with a fixed deceleration of 1.6g to model the ideal brake curve
- Used Python MatPlotLib to plot the weight transfer function as well as the actual braking line when using a dual master cylinder (front, rear) along with a balance bar and adjustable proportioning valve
- Utilized the brakes system spreadsheet to track constants and values to effectively troubleshoot modelling results