Avaliação estrutural de um chassi de fórmula SAE em material compósito

Abstract

The chassis is one the main components in a vehicle, being responsible for the assemble of all other vehicle systems and components, such as the engine and suspension. In competition vehicles, the main chassis types are the tubular spaceframe, monocoques and a hybrid between the two of them. In monocoque and hybrid chassis, the use of composite materials with sandwich structures using a honeycomb as the core, are being often applied as then allow to reach lighter and stiffer structures. The stiffness of a frame, especially the torsional stiffness, is one of the main project parameters as it is necessary to guarantee the proper function of the suspension system. During the design stage, computational simulations thorough finite element analysis are a great tool to evaluate the torsional stiffness of a chassis. This project is inserted into this context, where the objective is to design a hybrid chassis, using composite materials, that meet the requirements of a formula SAE competition vehicle. Properties such as mass, using tridimensional chassis models, and torsional stiffness, through finite element analysis softwares, are evaluated. It is shown a comparison between the chassis models developed during this project and previous chassis used by the formula SAE team, Fórmula UTFPR, from UTFPR-Curitiba, which integrates the Formula SAE competition.