Finished Chassis!

(Michael Graham) Its been a long time since I’ve had the time to update the website, and this will be my last post.  The chassis (my senior design project) is complete now and it is everything we wanted it to be.  This project is arguably the best chassis the SIUE School of engineering has ever produced, and heres why: The frame is made entirely of 1″ OD 1/8″ wall 6061 aluminum, which has a greater strength to weight ratio than the popular chrome-molly steel.  The design of the frame reduced stress concentrations and dangerous deformations around the driver when compared to the old solar car.  The whole car has a very small frontal area to reduce wind resistance.  The chassis has a low polar moment of inertia which allows it to make turns quickly (so its more like a mazda miata and less like a buick).  The chassis is designed so that the finished car will have a center of gravity slightly ahead of its neural steering point, which means it will understeer slightly (thats the best you can do with a car).  The steering system satisfies perfect Ackerman condition for all steering angles up to 10 deg and is still close to Ackerman up to 35 deg.  The steering column has ZERO play in it and the steering wheel is removable.  The drivers compartment is very comfortable and the pedals (which are both on the right side) are both adjustable.  Getting in and out of the car is easy too.  The front suspension (double A-arm unequal lengths not parallel) has ZERO bump steer over its entire 3″ of travel.  The single rear wheel on a swing arm doesnt suffer the effects of roll steer. Overall the suspension has the appropriate stiffness, lots of adjust-ability, clean non-binding movements, and great camber control on turns.  All three wheels have brakes.  On the whole every part was machined and/or welded to perfection by experienced fabricators.  The project was selected as the only mechanical engineering project to go to the senior project showcase. My senior design team is really proud of the work we’ve done on this project and we hope the chassis will allow SIUE to competitively compete with other schools.

2010-2011 Solar Car Chassis Senior Design team-Michael P Graham, Grant Irvine, Schott Guehne, Troy Howell.