Mechanical Engineer
BAJA SAE
Team Advisor
About Baja SAE:
Baja SAE is an intercollegiate design competition run by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Teams of students from universities all over the world design and build small off-road cars.
Suspension Packaging
For the 2022 season, I helped the suspension sub-team with the wheel packaging. I showed them how to optimize designs by using tools like topology optimization and generative design. In addition to this I taught them the basics of vehicle dynamics and analyzed the forces applied to the wheels based on different load scenarios.
Force Calculator
The 2022 force calculator is based on the 2021 force calculator, but corrections were made in order to be more accurate. Additionally, a more in depth analysis was performed for the forces produced after frontal, and lateral impacts.
Force Distribution:
To have more accurate results on the static simulation analysis and generative design optimization, I performed force calculations on the rear and frontal wheel hubs for each force scenario on the wheel force calculator. This helped us know how the forces are distributed on the wheel hubs and upright depending on each load scenario.
Generative Design:
Generative design was performed to have an idea of where material was needed. The goal was that by the end of this process, we would have lighter parts without compromising the factor of safety. This resulted in lighter uprights and wheel hubs compared to the 2021 and 2020 parts, and added an increased factor of safety by 1.5.
