Formula SAE Chassis Design & Materials

Each year, Minnesota State University, Mankato participates in an international motorsports competition in Brooklyn, MI as a senior year capstone project. One of the main goals of the 2013-14 team was to have a stronger and lighter chassis then the 2011-12 team. The chassis of the Formula SAE vehicle is one of the most important components of the project, it is what forms the basis for the car, and holds all the parts together to make a running vehicle. Having a stronger and lighter chassis contributes drastically to overall driving performance of the vehicle. Throughout the first semester of the project, the team created the original designs for the chassis. PTC Pro Engineer, a 3-dimensional computer modeling software, was used along with other software to make sure other components of the chassis were compatible with the frame design, as well as improving in the areas that had been chosen. Using the modeling and simulation software, tests were run to analyze and adjust the material composition of the chassis to meet the goal requirements. In order to achieve these improvement goals, it was necessary not only to design an efficient chassis architecture, but also to evaluate the strength characteristics of the chosen materials to keep the weight of the chassis low. These chosen materials were the subject of the grant applied for in Fall 2013. At this point, the design has been translated from the computer in to a tangible chassis, from which the 2013-14 Formula SAE car is being fabricated