FSAE Baja 2018
What?
During the year 2017-18 I was named Captain of our college's FSAE Baja team to lead a team of 25 students to participate in a national level All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) design competition. We are supposed to design an ATV according to the competition standards which are to change every year just like its done in F1, build the ATV and compete in different competitions like design, endurance, brake, sales presentation, etc.
Chassis wireframe design using Solidworks and Catia V
How?
As a captain, I assigned roles in different teams to members based on their skills and interest while I led the CAE team and assisted the Chassis design and Brake teams. We used Solidworks, Solidworks sheet metal and Catia V to design the chassis, suspension and the hub assembly and Ansys static structural analysis to simulate the impact performance of the chassis.
Final design of our buggy. Rendered using Solidworks.
Impact analysis using Ansys static structural simulation to gauge the chassis performance. This was one of my final iteration after making changes to the design using previous chassis design performance, added some gusset after this simulation for our final design. Optimized the FOS to 1.7.
The first chassis design we came up with had an FOS of around 4.5. I know... its too much. So I observed the stress concentrations and made changes to the support members across the chassis and around our 4th iteration, we optimized the FOS to around 1.7. Which is within the competition standard of 1.5-2.0.
In the background, I worked with the brake team to finalize the calculations, and made sure the timeline across all the teams were met. This was my first project I used a primitive DOE to track our research progress and design performance. We also implemented DFM/DFA across all the design phases to make sure the construction of the ATV will proceed smoothly. We avoided complicated joints so to make sure welding wouldn't be a hassle. Designed the chassis in such a way that mounting the power and transmission systems doesn't need an additional and insignificant support. And planed every control system in the design phase itself so that building the ATV goes smoothly.
Primitive build of our chassis using PVC pipes to make sure the driver can sit inside our buggy.
Completed ATV. One the first day of our Baja competition.
I trained to use TIG, MIG and Arc welding to construct the chassis. We used CNC to manufacture the hub and knuckle assembly. Built the brake system on the buggy myself while assisting steering, transmission and suspension assembly. Assisted miscellaneous builds using common machineries like lathe, angle grinding, etc.
Result
We successfully completed our design and participated in the competition. Though we didn't any particular category, we were placed amongst the top 15% overall competing with 355+ teams across the nation.
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This was my first huge project as a mechanical engineer. I discovered and explored my passion for CAD and CAE for the first time, learned a lot about vehicle stress, suspension and brake calculations. And how to lead a team and manage projects with multiple disciplines. Though the team effort was key to successful complete this project, couldn't have done without the support and coordination of all my boys. It took 9 months from the start to the completion of this project and at some times was hard to juggle academics and a project of this scale. But in the end, I came out of this project as a better engineer skilled in design, CAE, team building and leadership I would say. One of my proudest works as an engineer.
Me (dark green shirt) checking our transmission system after the endurance race.
Miscellaneous: My journey through FSAE Baja
Me and my Boys! Me (center, light blue t-shirt) along with my FSAE Baja team on the day before starting to the competition.
During our first test run around our campus
Our team's pitstop.
Me making some last minute welds to the buggy before the competition starts.
Making our mark! me with my school's name
One last pic before we left the competition grounds.