STRUCTURAL PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF FORMULA SAE CAR
Keywords:
Chassis, FEA, Stress, Displacement, Torsional rigidity.Abstract
Formula SAE competitions take place every year and challenge teams of engineering students to design and build a small single-seater racing car. Among many other key components, chassis is an indispensable structural backbone of an automobile especially in a racing car. Good designs allow a light, stiff and extremely safe chassis to be produced at a reasonable manufacturing cost. The work shown in this research paper was taken from second international participation by Chitkara FSAE team. This paper introduces several concepts of frame’s load distributions and consequent deformation modes. Design model was prepared using anthropometric parameters of tallest driver (95th percentile male), SAE rules book and previous design knowledge. Static and dynamic load distributions were calculated analytically followed by extensive study of various boundary conditions to be applied during diverse FEA tests. Stress distributions, lateral displacements during static, dynamic and frequency modes were analyzed and found considerable factor of safety as required. Torsional rigidity was calculated to be 615.98 Nm/deg which was 2.46 times the torsional rigidity of older design (250 Nm/deg). Weight of the chassis was measured to be approximately 32 kg which was 1.125 times less than the previous chassis (36 kg). In nutshell, ratio of percentage increase in torsional rigidity to percentage decrease in weight was calculated to be 13.15:1.References
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