Help requested for those who've FSAE or CAD stress packages

[Matra et Alpine]

Please can anyone give me a quick hand ?

Found out we've a major problem with the single seater and will have to remove one of the cross braces in the footwell.

If anyone has the apps and the time I'd like to model the front end to ensure we can keep the rigidity without having it over-engineered and carrying kgs of extra bracing.

If you fancy a "project" and help a racer get the car ready in the next 2 weeks then please post up or PM me.

Otherwise it's going to be "old school" paper and slide rule

[culver]

What about making a model out of wood then stress testing it?

[drakkie]

Will the stress analysis tool in Inventor be enough or should it be done in Patran/Nastran ? I am able to do both, but in Nastran it will take a lot more time for me to model it. I last used it about a year ago, so I will lose a lot of time to get used to it again.

Making a model (in Inventor) of the frame I can probably do before the weekend is over if you provide me the necessary data. The stress analysis should be an afternoon of work when thats done.

[RacingManiac]

Currently I only have access to solidworks 09(with Solidwork Simulation, previously known as Cosmos FEA package).

[Matra et Alpine]

Cheers guys.

@Culver. Too many variables in wood and take too long to build a REAL model
@drakkie. Can I mail you dimensions and see if we can rig up a first pass ? I'm happy ( not sure if fellow driver is tho' ) to go with a design+20% so not too critical and it's a fairly simple triangulation.
@RM. Is Cosmos easy to do quick builds with ?

Key thing - coz I know I'm asking big favour - is to try and make it simple and fast and "reasonably" accurate. THEN remove two of the triangulations and a cross brace and use other bracing to take up the forces/loads.

We are looking at seeing if we can alter the seating so the driver with the big feet will sit with knees up and might just get comfortable then. At least that way we'll only be cutting/bracing the dash supports

[RacingManiac]

The setup for Solidwork's FEA is fairly simple. If you know your load, constraint, and material you can get pretty simple runs going. Now if you want to get into the gritty stuff taking into account of weld, bolted joint and whatnot, they get trickier...

Typically around office we do quick runs on Solidworks with some "simulated" joints, without actually going into setting up contact but rather using specific constraints....its a lot faster(less taxing on the workstation laptops we use), gets you in the ball park, and give correlated results from bench tests later. Provided you know what the assumptions are.

Really complicated stuff, with difficult weld and varying material, the company has an analytical mechanics group that does "real" FEA works...

TBH though I have limited experience running "frames" though, most works I do are solids oriented, and in my FSAE day it was sheetmetal box structures...

[drakkie]

The setup for Solidwork's FEA is fairly simple. If you know your load, constraint, and material you can get pretty simple runs going. Now if you want to get into the gritty stuff taking into account of weld, bolted joint and whatnot, they get trickier...

Basically the same goes for Autodesk Inventor. Usually for the more complicated calculations on my school they usually put it in Patran directly.

[Matra et Alpine]

We've managed to squeeze in to get some testing on local track.
So IF we make it round the hairpin we might come into view of the webcam
Official Knockhill driving experiences, Motorsport gift ideas and driving experience courses in Scotland

See it's raining already Ah Scotland ..... gotta love it

[Matra et Alpine]

Ah well .... love motorsport in Scotland
Track was cancelled .... only found out when we got there with the OMS on the trailer !
So we blagged closed access to the lower paddock and at least got some setup done for launches

The one thing we HAVE managed is we CAN get mates sons feet to fit in without choppping the chassis ( or his feet ! ).
SO thanks for the offers, but looks like we'll get away without mods ..... phew

VERY close to the legal limit for his height tho' so we need to have a scrutineer sign off. See pic.


Definately agreed the colour sucks, but we are not yet in agreement. Mate wants British Racing Green with a Lotus yellow stripe. I say that's old hat and prefer Ecurie Ecosse blue with white stripes across nose. Arguments ensue

[RacingManiac]

What kind of racing is this? Any spec on the car?

[csl177]

Ecurrie Ecosse vote here. Looks sort of like the old F440 class... bike engine and chain drive?

[drakkie]

The one thing we HAVE managed is we CAN get mates sons feet to fit in without choppping the chassis ( or his feet ! ).
SO thanks for the offers, but looks like we'll get away without mods ..... phew

Lucky you. Well if you need my assistance anyway, just give me a shout Maybe it'd be interesting for us both to have the car in 3D-CAD anyway ? Now I need another subject for my school assignment I guess i'll continue work on the drawings of my Puma.

Definately agreed the colour sucks, but we are not yet in agreement. Mate wants British Racing Green with a Lotus yellow stripe. I say that's old hat and prefer Ecurie Ecosse blue with white stripes across nose. Arguments ensue

Ecurie Ecosse has my vote too! British racing green offcourse doesn't fit well with a car from Scotland

[culver]

The F440 IIRC used a rigid axle. The car in question looks like it's the same philosphy as the new F1000 class in SCCA. The F1000 class is conventional tube chassis with bike power. It would be interesting to see how they did the chain drive since that's one of the parts that was a teething issue for the F1000 class.
Here's an example of a Van Diemen converted for chain drive.
http://billmaisey.com/DSCF0003.jpg

[RacingManiac]

So like a big FSAE car with wings...lol

[Matra et Alpine]

It's an OMS.
Specialist bike engine lightweight cars for sprint and hillclimbs.
yes, chain drive with a racing LSD -- VERY tight

These are a common type of sprint/hillclimb race car over here for a long time now.
The hillclimb specialists were quick to realise that the lightness of the bike engine could make a machine as fast as the big Gould ex-F1 powered lumps ... and they turn out to be FASTER !!
This one is 280kg full ready to launch THEN you add an aging lardy gentleman driver and the power to weight gets nto so good

The other fast ones are re-engined Caterham and Westies etc with fully tuned race bike engines and similar setup in front engine RWD.

Track racing has tended to be the radical bike engined based styles rather than open wheelers.

The OMS Racing Web Site

This is an early model with Kawasaki ZZR1100 engine/box.
Full engine management unit and interrupter change for clutchless up AND DOWN changes Makes for fast acceleration .... as long as you've the guts to keep it floored

hmmm nice idea Sjoerde a 3d model of the car could be useful in case we bend a bit

kind of racing

Sprints and Hillclimbs

Motorsport Videos, The Scottish Sprint and Hillclimb Championship 2009
The Scottish Sprint and Hillclimb Championship 2011