Modelling and structural analysis based on numerical simulation of a car chassis

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Pedro Mendes
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/31450
• topic: Formula student; Vehicle chassis; Numeric simulation; Structural analysis; Composite space frame

The development of a Formula Student chassis must be done with the aid of numerical simulations and structural analyses, in order to ensure a light, safe solution, with good torsional stiffness. The aim of this work was to study several existing solutions, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each one of these, with the ultimate goal of proposing an improved solution. Loading scenarios to which a chassis may be subjected were analysed, and there was a brief search on the most suited materials. As a means to compare the different solutions, the most important criteria to be considered were defined, and torsional and both frontal and lateral impact simulations were conducted. The resulting chassis consists of a carbon composite space frame, which showed significant improvements regarding torsional stiffness and impact response when compared with the already existing solutions.