The Analysis of a SAE Formula Prototype Chassis Via Finite Element Method

Resumo

Engineering has always promoted efficiency linked with a safe and profitable design. In light of this, a
tool has been growing, which is the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering). That tool models a design and tests it
on a software via virtual prototypes. To put it simply, the CAE simplifies the development of a project, since
having a computer-based study of the problem allows the developer to visualize the design without having neither
cost with material nor with manufacturing the prototype. The engineer therefore saves time and money, besides
not having accidental risk of a prototype’s real failure, as it is all virtual. That is why the CAE perfectly fits in
naval and aerospace engineering, because in those areas any minimal error can generate a fatality. Within the CAE
technology, there are some subdivisions, the most famous are: CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), which
studies transfer of heat and mass; and FEM (Finite Element Method), in which structural mechanics is studied. In
the present work we will present the FEM in a chassis of a FORMULA SAE vehicle model, which will be modeled,
made as discretization, simulated and by finalization an experimental table will be made, where the real results
(experimental table) and the results obtained via software will be analyzed. Either the experimented and the
simulated tables will demonstrate a very important factor in a vehicle chassis, that is the torsional stiffness. Thus,
by analysing the torsional stiffness of the table, the engineer knows how a car will behave in a torsion, and such
knowledge is crucial for the vehicle dynamics and pilot’s safety.