This semester, I am working on a project for Terps Racing – University of Maryland’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Off-Road team. The purpose of this project is to calculate theoretical load cases (both worst-case and practical) of the car’s chassis. With these results, I will compile a database for the team’s reference when creating future chassis designs.
Part of the SAE competition is a design presentation. In this presentation, members of the team give a detailed explanation about why they chose to design their vehicle the way they did. In one of the competitions that we participated in last year, we received feedback that our chassis design did not have sufficient reasoning for being designed the way it was.
This year, I will be one of the representatives giving this presentation. In this presentation, I plan to provide realistic load cases using dynamic calculations. With these results, I will input the values into SolidWorks Finite Element Analysis. By analyzing deflection and safety factors, we can determine whether any part of the chassis is likely to fail. If there are any parts of the chassis that are likely to fail, we will have to create minor changes or implement additions such as gussets to strengthen our design. Any changes to the design will be reflected in the presentation.