Baja SAE Research Articles

Analysis of Steering Knuckle of All Terrain Vehicles (ATV) Using Finite Element Analysis

Steering knuckle is the most stress sustaining and critical component of All Terrain Vehicle (ATV). Steering knuckle is the pivot point of the steering and suspension system, which allows the front wheels to turn and also allow the movement of suspension arms motion. The light weight and high strength component is always in demanding for racecar application. Lightweight and optimized design of steering knuckle is proposed to use for a BAJA SAE INDIA off road racecar. Due to the failure in knuckle in terrain vehicle after some instances, it has to be modified for better performance. The 3D CAD model created by using CATIA V5 and static as well as model analysis carried out in ANSYS 12 to understand its behavior under operating conditions. All test for frame was carried out on aluminum alloys 6061-T6 & for spindle EN8. The paper discusses the FE analysis of existing and modified Steering Knuckle.

International Education Outreach: A Report on the SAE Baja Workshops in India

The Baja Collegiate Design Series is a competition that presents engineering educators with an opportunity to offer students a meaningful, hands-on, team learning experience. Each year as many as 140 Baja cars are entered in the Baja SAE events across the US and around the world. Each team's goal is to design and build a prototype of a rugged, single seat, off-road recreational vehicle intended for sale to the non-professional weekend off-road enthusiast. The teams are judged on ergonomics, functionality, and producibility of their cars in addition to a combination of static and dynamic race events. The Mechanical Engineering department at Tennessee Technological University (TTU) has long been affiliated with the Baja SAE competition, having hosted the event 5 times and placed in the top 10 over 80% of the time since 1977. SAE India recognized the value of this hands-on experience and initiated a similar program for universities in India in 2006. In order to provide the required experience and expertise for the Indian teams to compete in the international competitions, SAE-India partnered with TTU to conduct workshops and advise Indian college students on building and racing a competitive SAE Baja vehicle. This paper presents a report on a recent trip over a period of 16 days by a group of nine students and two professors from TTU to conduct workshops and interact with about 1000 Indian college students at three different sites. They held demonstrations using TTU's 2011 winning vehicle and gave technical presentations on various aspects of designing, building and racing a winning vehicle. In addition to visiting some industries in Pune, India, the team toured the Jaipur foot factory (jaipurfoot.org) and enjoyed some cultural immersions, visiting the Taj Mahal, Golden Temple and Jaipur Palace along the way. Overall, it was an extremely beneficial experience to students from both countries as summarized in one student's journal entry: We brought home a ton of pictures, stories, and experiences to share with everyone here. I think we learned as much, if not more, than everyone we were teaching at the workshops. I think we made a great impact going over there, and we formed a lot of strong partnerships and relationships that will hopefully carry on into the future. I know I am more culturally connected than when I left, and I think I will have a better time understanding our international students here as well. I'm so grateful that I got to be a part of this amazing journey.

Modern Tools for Communication in Concurrent Engineering

The increasing complexity of products and the need for delivering the best design in the shortest possible timeframe have driven many companies to use multidisciplinary teams to conceive and develop new products. Multidisciplinary product teams have the benefits of increased skill diversity and often a corresponding increased level of creativity due to the diverse nature of the team members. However, in order for teams to be highly effective members must be able to communicate with each other even if they are in different locations and work at different times. A key part of team communication is constant access to up to date information. An effective way of facilitating team communication is internet based communication tools. They provide a means for team members located around the world to have instant access to pertinent information while allowing team leaders to maintain control of information flow. In this paper the authors document the adoption of four internet based communication tools, Google Documents, Google Spreadsheets, Google Calendar, and SolidWorks Enterprise PDM by the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Baja SAE® racing team and the effect they had on team communication and effectiveness. The RIT Baja SAE® race team is an excellent example for demonstrating the effectiveness of internet based tools because members of the team have diverse backgrounds, have varying schedules, and need to work from a variety of locations. The implementation of internet based tools resulted in the RIT Baja SAE® team increasing the number of on time design completions, lowering production costs due to the reduction of subsystem interferences, and an improved showing at the competitions the team attended.