DESIGN OF A FORMULA SAE CHASSIS BY THE TORSIONAL STIFFNESS CRITERIA

The Formula SAE series of competitions test engineering students into theproject and prototyping of single-seater formula type vehicles. To guarantee a goodperformance and the safety of pilot, the chassis must be designed to withstand theloads caused by the car dynamics during its operation and be sufficient rigid to notinfluence in the vehicle behavior while maintaining the minimum mass possible. In theproject of these structures, the torsional stiffness is well established as the mainparameter of investigation in the compliance with the requirements cited. For this work,the design of a Formula SAE chassis was made through the study of its torsionalstiffness. For this goal, research in the literature was performed to gather informationabout the range of values for torsional stiffness commonly adopted for this kind ofproject. The chassis response to dynamic (braking and cornering) scenarios was alsoinvestigated. The study made, showed that the chassis designed is stiffer than thevalues encountered in the literature, but it achieves the project requirements of safetyand maximum mass established.