DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF A TUBULAR SPACE FRAME CHASSIS OF A HIGH PERFORMANCE RACE CAR

Abstract

Formula Student Racing competitions are held at var ious Formula SAE circuits globally. Students from d ifferent colleges worldwide thrive to build a Formula style race car to compete at these events. In lieu to the competition rules and regulations it is important to design the chassis of the car with utmost priority. The major challenge posed is to design and fabrica te a light weight car without compromising on the safety of the driver. The car h as to be rigidly fabricated at minimal expense. Th e work in this paper is based on the team NITK Racing’s Car; the DICV NR XIV. This paper showcases various methods of material selecti on, design optimization techniques and Finite element analysis (FEA) using ANSYS. The basic design is based on the anthropolog ical data of the specified human (95 th percentile male) allowing fast ingress and egress from the car. Following the final design selection the static structural analysis of the car was done and the consequent res ults have been plotted. The entire design and anal ysis process is based on FSAE 2013 rule book and knowledge of designing and manuf acturing yesteryear’s car.