Chassis development for the formula SAE racer

Abstract

The dissertation that follows consists of the method, design, testing and construction of the Formula SAE (FSAE) chassis for the USQ Motorsport entry into the 2006 competition. The chassis design was limited early in the process to designing a space frame chassis that used cold drawn mild steel tube 350LO as the material. It was limited to the space frame because of previous research into the topic and the material was supplied by a sponsor. The main areas that are considered in this report of the design are as follows: 1. The size and shape of all the other components. 2. Improvements on the previous years design in areas of: a. Weight. b. General and specific size. c. Strength. d. Driver comfort. e. General aesthetics of the car. 3. General feedback from previous year’s team. A skeleton model created in Pro-engineer was the method used to model the chassis in the design stages. The skeleton model set up the geometry of the design and from this all other components could be generated off it to produce a final model of the entire chassis. Ansys was used as the analysis program using an input file method. Many different processes were used in the construction of the chassis however the most advantageous part of the process was the initial construction of a ‘construction bed’ which provided much greater comfort and accessibility to the welds throughout the construction process. Overall a chassis was designed and constructed that in theory met all specified goals, provided good room for all the required components to be fitted and was aesthetically pleasing to the eye.