Design, Construction, and Testing of the 2009 Formula SAE Chassis

Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) is a collegiate design competition in which hundreds of student teams design, build and compete in a small, open-wheel racecar. The purpose of the competition is to engage students in a real life engineering project. The main goal of any chassis team is to build a strong, light and stiff chassis. One way we worked to accomplish this goal was to incorporate composite materials into the chassis. Fiberglass/Nomex panels were fit into the open sections of the car to create stiffening or shear panels. These panels are very stiff and added to the chassis\u27s torsional rigidity. This design did not follow FSAE rules so we needed to prove structural equivalency between our design and the SAE spec frame. Several methods were used to prove equivalence, including Finite Element Analysis computer modeling. Due to the complexity of the frame design and materials involved, the software was not able to accurately test our rendered models. Physical modeling was the only way to generate accurate results. Two replicas of the lower frame rails were built; one exactly to SAE rules, and one with our design variation and the shear panels. Both of these test pieces were crushed on a machine to test their strength. This is the first year that MSU has incorporated composites as a structural member of the chassis. Our research and testing has shown that the composites had greatly improved the mechanical aspects of the systems where they were used