Suspension and Chassis Redesign of the 2020 Baja SAE Vehicle

The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) hosts an off-road racing series known as Baja SAE. The Baja vehicle is an off-road vehicle designed and built by university students to compete against other student teams at an international level. At the competition events, vehicles are tested on their ability of acceleration, gradeability, braking and maneuverability. The Kettering University Baja vehicle built over the past few years has had challenges in performing well in the Baja SAE competitions due to its suspension design. This work focuses on the complete redesign of suspension geometry and individual linkages in a way that improves the overall performance and strength of the suspension components. In order to ensure the design of a good performing system, improved validation methods are used. The new suspension and full vehicle assemblies are simulated using the multibody dynamics simulation tool ADAMS Car. The individual components are designed and validated using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tool Ansys. This work elaborates on the procedures followed during the design and validation processes. The results obtained from multibody dynamic simulations and FEA are explained and reporte