Fuel Efficient Car

The aim of this thesis is to design and analyse an optimal lightweight chassis for the GUtech Shell Eco Marathon Team (GSET) prototype vehicle 2016. Considering the fact that increased weight has a detrimental effect on fuel economy, this thesis aims to aid the weight reduction objective set by GSET through designing a chassis that is lighter and stiffer than the previous year’s chassis. The overall proportions of the vehicle are also reduced by packaging the rear end in a more compact manner. Chassis design concepts are introduced and different composite materials are analysed. The newly designed composite chassis is modelled in Solidworks and then simulated in ANSYS Workbench Mechanical coupled with ANSYS Composite PrepPost using finite element analysis (FEA). Several possible loading scenarios are taken into consideration and then simulated in order to achieve the optimum compromise between low weight and adequate stiffness.

A sandwich panel structure utilising nomex and carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) is researched instead of a solely carbon fibre approach. The effect of increasing the sandwich core thickness is analysed using FEA. Furthermore an attempt to implement the engine as a chassis member is looked at with the final composite chassis design weighing in at less than half as much as the previous year’s aluminium chassis. A 55% weight reduction is achieved without compromising on stiffness and in the final chapter fabrication recommendations are provided that would be helpful for the next generation of GSET to fabricate the composite chassis in the University workshop.