RMIT University Vietnam - School of Science and Technology

MIET2510 – Mechanical Design

Mechanical Design Project

Project Brief

Introduction

In the course you are required to design a drivetrain of a ground vehicle. The typical drivetrain is used to
transfer the moment of the internal combustion engine to the wheels with several modifications. In order
to maintain size/weight parameters of the systems, there are several elements, which change and adjust
transferred moment. The key elements of the drivetrain are: Engine, Clutch; Gearbox; Transmission shaft;
Main gear; Wheel drive shafts.

Design Requirements

As a group of engineers, you should design and calculate all relevant parts for the drivetrain of a vehicle.
In order to maintain the speed, the following assumptions in the calculations should be used for
calculations of parts: maximum acceleration is limited by traction of the wheels and maximum speed of
the vehicle is limited by power of the engine.

Submission Requirements

For this assessment you should submit the following items:

a) Project report. The report should include the design method or procedure, calculations, graphs or
sketching for illustration, summary, and discussions on the design results. Students are able to use any
documents for reference (even with additional equations or formula) with citations.

Page 1 of 6
b) CAD model. The report should be summited together with the full model of transmission. You can use
any of the designs in your assignment as inputs.

Submission Deadline: To be announced three weeks before the due date.

Submission Method: To be announced in class.

The following specifications in the below table are given for two different cars. Group with odd numbers
(Group 1, 3,5) will be assigned to Car 1 and Group with even numbers (Group 2,4,6) will be assigned to
Car 2.

Table. Vehicle’s Parameters

Parameter Value (Car 1) Value (Car 2)

Min. Rotational Speed 800 rpm 900 rpm

Max torque 100 Nm at 4500 rpm 120 Nm at 4200 rpm

Max Power 85 kW at 5200 rpm 94 kW at 4700 rpm

Wheel’s Radius 0.35 m 0.35 m

Max. Traction Coefficient 0.95 0.92

Mass 950 kg 1050 kg

Required max acceleration 2.5 m/s^2 2.2 m/s^2

Max Speed 130 km/h 150 km/h

Cross Sectional Area 1.87 m^2 2.05 m^2

Drag Coefficient CD 0.35 0.42

Weight Distribution 55:45 55:45

Page 2 of 6
Reference Information

To perform full requirements analysis, use the following ideas:

The power requirement for the drivetrain is based on the external forces, acting on the vehicle:

𝐹𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 = 𝐹𝐴𝑒𝑟𝑜 + 𝐹𝑟_𝑓 + 𝐹𝑟_𝑟 + 𝐹𝑈𝑝_𝐻𝑖𝑙𝑙

where FExternal is the total external force acting on the vehicle.

Faero is the total aerodynamic drag force.

Fr_f and Fr_r are the tyre resistance forces of the front and rear wheels.

FUp_Hill is the gravitational resistance force for the up-hill movement.

The following equations show the formulas for external resistance force calculations:

1
𝐹𝐴𝑒𝑟𝑜 = 𝜌𝐴𝐶𝐷 𝑉 2
2

where ρ- density of the air

A- the cross section area, perpendicular to the movement

CD- drag coefficient of the vehicle’s body

V- velocity of the vehicle.

𝑉
𝐹𝑟_𝑓 = 𝑊𝑓 ∗ 0.01(1 + )
147

𝑉
𝐹𝑟_𝑟 = 𝑊𝑟 ∗ 0.01(1 + )
147

where Wf and Wr are the weight allocated for the front (Wf) and rear (WR) axis accordingly.

The gravitational resistance force can be found as:

𝐹𝑈𝑝_ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙 = 𝑊𝑇 sin(𝜃)

Page 3 of 6
where WT- the total weight of the vehicle.

θ is the inclination angle of the road.

As it can be seen from above equation, the gravitational resistance force exists only for the uphill
movement, and doesn’t exist for the horizontal road movement or for the downhill movement. For the
downhill movement, this force becomes positive force and support the movement of the vehicle.

The applied points of the forces are shown on the below figure.

Figure. Simplified force Diagram of Vehicle.

The overall supplied force of the drivetrain should satisfy the rule as shown:

𝐹𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 ≥ 𝐹𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙

The required output force of the motor should be higher, than the external resistance force. If the torque
force of the drivetrain is higher than the resistance force, then the vehicle will accelerate. Acceleration
process can be described using equation below:

𝐹𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 − 𝐹𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 = 𝑚𝑎𝑥

Page 4 of 6
where m is the mass of the vehicle.

ax is the acceleration of the vehicle.

To evaluate the output parameter of the motor, the output torque should be calculated. As the power is to
be transferred by the wheels only, the motor torque is applied to the shaft of the wheels.

Where Fd is the driving force of the wheel, Tm- torque of the motor, r- radius of the wheel, ω- rotational
velocity of the wheel.

Applied motor torque can be calculated using:

𝑇𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑟𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝐹𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙

where rwheel: radius of the wheel.

As the transmission uses the differential with the main gear and the gearbox to change the supplied torque,
the final applied drivetrain torque is to be calculated as below:

𝑇𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑇𝑀𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛

where Tmotor: output torque of the motor.

ntransmission: the cumulative transmission ration of the gearbox and the main gear.

Second assessment of the drivetrain is based on the power analysis of the movement. The requirements
can be expressed by:

𝑃𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 ≥ 𝑃𝐸𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙

where PDrivetrain is the output power of the drivetrain.

PExternal is the power of the resistant forces.

Page 5 of 6
To calculate the external required power, the equations below:

1
𝑃𝐴𝑒𝑟𝑜 = 2 𝜌𝐴𝐶𝐷 𝑉 3

𝑉
𝑃𝑟_𝑓 = 0.01 (1 + 147) 𝑊𝑓 𝑉

𝑉
𝑃𝑟_𝑟 = 0.01 (1 + 147) 𝑊𝑟 𝑉

𝑃𝑈𝑝_ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑙 = 𝑊𝑇 𝑉 sin(𝜃)

where ρ- density of the air

A- the cross-section area, perpendicular to the movement.

CD- drag coefficient of the vehicle’s body.

V- velocity of the vehicle.

Wr and Wf are the weight of the rear and front axis accordingly.

WT- total weight of the vehicle, θ- inclination angle of the road.

The drivetrain power depends on the output power of the motor (PMotor) and the efficiency of the
transmission elements (ηtransmission), as shown below:

𝑃𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛 = 𝑃𝑀𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝜂𝑇𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛

To maintain acceleration and high-speed requirements, several steps transmission should be design. In
your project, you can design 2-3 gear gearbox to maintain the speed and acceleration requirements.

End of document

Page 6 of 6