Design, stimulation and fabrication of chassis of an FSAE female driven vehicle

Abstract

Abstract Formula student competitions are a type of design and fabrication competition held across the world. Chassis is a very important component of any vehicle which is designed keeping in mind all the other components of vehicle like suspension, brakes, engine requirements, etc. as well as ergonomics and driver comfort as per the rules of the competition This study focuses on design, optimization and ANSYS analysis of a chassis designed around a 95-percentile male dummy as well as female driver comfort. The chassis was tested for front bulkhead impact, rear bulkhead impact, vertical bending and torsion analysis under static conditions and optimized to give a design with least weight, least cost in manufacturing and fabrication, maximum possible torsional rigidity and safety. A spaceframe chassis was designed using cold rolled tubes of AISI 1018 using SolidWorks and tested on ANSYS at all major points of force applications. 1.22 FOS was obtained in front bulkhead impact test, 1.7 FOS was obtained in rear bulkhead impact test, FOS of 1.15 was obtained in torsion test and 1.49 FOS was obtained in vertical bending test of the chassis in FEA analysis. The chassis obtained had the optimum values of safety and comfort and provided cheapest method for manufacturing.