Suspension Members Tasks

Update color (Kayla)

I am going to be a bit busy today in the rush to get closer to finding our hardpoints! Please please let me know if there is anything I should be clearer on - some of these tasks are urging you to begin researching and understanding things that most of the current members do not really even have a great grasp on so let us know if I can help guide your learning.

Prioritize your mental health this week and this weekend!

these are the things I want you guys to work on:

In the spirit of trying to be more organized about assignments Ill take a count of which one of these each person touched on. Throughout your work today / this week, please refer back to this page and type your own answers/notes/updates in here. If you intend to have more thorough notes or start making significant progress on a task then do feel free to just link or upload your doc!

Remember that it is encouraged to post your own material in any of our platforms and communicate through slack if you have any concerns, questions, or information to share!

• Make progress on your master model - then start making the parts for it

• if you would like to because you think it would benefit you / you didnt get to complete it as well as you would have liked then -

  • Finish SRR if you have not - take notes if you must

  • review the questions that were brought up during the suspension portion

  • work on the model mania cading

  • watch the bolted joints video assigned if not have alrdy - take notes

  • watch parra lectures recorded - notes

• make sure you can calculate the radial loads on the bearing - Harshit talked about it at dyn meeting

• Watch combustion’s CDR it is super long but a ton of their design is what we have begun adopting so it is super useful

• FEA practice

Andrew: @Andrew Chang honorary mentions: looking at shock data and pleaseee help me find CAD for some coil shock that is ab like 8 in and has reasonable travel asap and send to me ples

Carter: @Carter Peeler

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PofRdyPQn6Ggvkay0szYLhfokKcrGXXy2nZMPqfmC14/edit?usp=sharing (I can put the summaries for each part in here but this doc has all my stuff so far)

• Today / this week please look into kinematics packages and software - you will be working with the CR liaison to get them to help us get software for free to model our suspension - needs to be trailing arm

• I will give you the manuals to dynatune for trailing arm:

• Look into OptimumK software and see if anything tells us that they support the trailing arm w ONE wheel

• Kinematics Software - i uploaded manuals to Sharepoint

• if they cant, look into ADAMS software and take notes on its interface, what the offer, if ppl have any thoughts ab it from a solar pov - the learning curve is very very hard but we dont know why / havent seen the UI yet

• Specializing in new gen: vehicle dynamics

  • what is our ideal degree roll/g lat acceleration aka roll gradient - how relevant is it for solar car and how can we consider it when designing?

  • bump steer x steering members - how can suspension help mitigate this

  • caster x kingpin angle relationship - what do we want to optimize for and what are the different effects to our vehicle dyn that can be achieved from adjustments?

  • explore vsusp and kinematics software options - take notes please I want to know too!

• same as oliver: Solidworks FEA practice - for you because this will be important to do to our apexes especially - apexes consider manufacturability and how much load it will be able to take.

  • try to sim your current apexes / control arms - i dont know how to sim too well myself so i cant tell you how to do it sorry, but at the least find some video to walk through the procedure on how to do a sim on a practice part

  • If you want a more structured option for practice we will be asking ryan greta for a video

  • watch the ryan greta FEA lecture and the Jonathan parra FEA lecture - those should be on sharepoint. if you cant find it let me know

• ^ i want you to end up working on the bellcrank FEA later on and maybe manufacturing methods for it, as well as topop operations and sims

• make a confluence page with your findings about the above concepts I put last time - but not necessary if you prioritize another task

• make a confluence page researching what are considerations when you design a bellcrank, what kind of geometry should we avoid?, what loads do we expect on the different bores / joints and how can we minimize this

• priority for you is still being the point of contact for kinematics software, maybe jumpstart understanding how to use dyna, optimum, and or ADAMS, maybe make a confluence page for your findings/tips/tricks

  • perhaps,… if u feel like it… pirate one..or two of these options :))

La’akea: @La'akea Lancial

• work on the reference sketch / master model and we will make sure that you understand how and how to make you first part using it (Had to start over because the my control arm lengths made no sense for any decent model, have a few questions I want to go over because I am a bit confused)

• may meet with composite / TRAVEL TO PICKLE in the last half of workday to see layup / testing process

• Specializing in new gen: composite integration and pushrods (Working on this week, not much progress so far as school load has been heavy)

  • understand the loads in the pushrods, what kind of inserts can we use?

  • radial load calculations on the rod ends at either end of the pushrods - benefit from doing the bearing calculations

  • understand composites and MATERIALS - why would we use CF instead of steel - why would we use steel instead of aluminum? - in what loading conditions are these materials strongest and thus when should we use them in what components?

• unfortunately since we are undergoing the composite testing now - I want you to review the testing plan and come to one of the testing sessions that the composite/dynamics people are going to

• keep up with the composite-dyn channel in slack and feel free to message in there if you need more resources or updates, message advait if you want hes always online

• start a research page on confluence here about loads experienced in a pushrod, testing procedures, anything you learn on bonding with composites with aluminum and understanding the bonding forces needed, insert bonding methods, rod end to insert interfacing options (helicoiling? smth else?), helicoiling purposes and how to do it

  • anything else that you need to research and understand

• if you didnt in your starter project, I want you to work on a CAD assembly consisting of CF tube (just a rod) and the inserts and the rod ends of your choosing

• something to remember is that rod ends are made of steel and the inserts will be made of aluminum and the rod will be composite so think about the material differences and how they will interface. inserts will need to be helicoiled unless you can find another method

Oliver: @Oliver Ludington

• Research manufacturing methods for control arms and methods of bearing inserts - staking or internally grooving for ret rings (going to start researching this week)

• begin CADing a control arm for Daybreak that is 2 inches longer than the previous and can house a retaining ring (Im gonna test out something on the starter project. Once I do more research then I will jump into a cad with just the control arms.)

  • or can be staked if you understand enough about it

  • read the thread in general slack dyn-collab where we talk about staking bearings

  • the current daybreak CAs are aluminum waterjetted with three rodends - you can try to make the same type of aluminum waterjetted with housing a bearing - I started on front upper

  • but look at the uploaded pics of other teams control arms (solar cars in particular) and see if there are other reliable and manufacturable options - steel tubular may be too difficult bc of how short they still are and figuring out how to insert the rod ends in that case

• Specializing in manufacturing and daybreak:

  • bearing calculations, machining, control arms!

  • loads on control arms, manufacturing methods for control arms, methods of bearing retaining

  • Machining and manufacturing fundamentals - feeds and speeds, tooling, tolerancing

  • https://www.skf.com/us/products/rolling-bearings/principles-of-rolling-bearing-selection/bearing-selection-process/bearing-size/size-selection-based-on-rating-life/equivalent-dynamic-bearing-load-p

• This year you will be in charge of jigging the control arms for load validation and for welding

• Finish a CAD model that is dynamic of your control arms - incorporating bearings and rod ends

• try to model squashed tubes (for welding, look at how combustion does it too)

• Solidworks FEA practice - for you because this will be important to do to our apexes especially - apexes consider manufacturability and how much load it will be able to take.

  • try to sim your current apexes / control arms - i dont know how to sim too well myself so i cant tell you how to do it sorry, but at the least find some video to walk through the procedure on how to do a sim on a practice part

  • If you want a more structured option for practice we will be asking ryan greta for a video

  • watch the ryan greta FEA lecture and the Jonathan parra FEA lecture - those should be on sharepoint. if you cant find it let me know

Manas: @Manas Jain

• Meet with jonathan, and a frame member to talk about your plans for the trailing arm as well as what you guys have learned about it overall

  • if you guys need to - write out a plan and coordinate w each other on what resources you will look at and what tasks or projects you think you might be taking to model a trailing arm suspension

  • Met with Jonathan, compared and exchanged resources we found. Didn’t create a plan moving forward, hopefully will do that on Thursday.

• If you have a good idea of trailing arm mechanics - look a the dynatune manuals for trailing arm - I havent discerned if it is worth is for us to obtain dynatune because it is very hard to use SO I want you to read the manual after understanding what you are optimizing for in a trailing arm and see if dynatune trailing arm would be useful, useable, and addresses all our needs

  • Didn’t really work on it too much, the documentation was so confusing. I did find a different software that supports trailing arm suspension, but it seems and janky and not user friendly. Will research more.

• Kinematics Software

• Specializing in trailing arm and daybreak

  • hardpoints for trailing arm,

    • Didn’t work on this. Seems like a later problem 😭

  • shock to be used in trailing arm - coil, travel needed?, any specific spring rate or stiffness recommended for a rear 1 wheel trailing arm?

    • I found a few good articles about the characteristics. I will take notes and review with everyone on workday.

  • overall architecture of a trailing arm

    • Same, I will read research articles.

  • compare trailing arm to swing arm - what are the differences? pros, cons? - this was hard for me to find resources on so do your best to collect some resources

    • Simple trailing arm is better imo. Swing arm is better at handling lateral forces but is much heavier and I don't think they’re that much of a concern for our car. Trailing arm only moves in one plane, much much lighter and simpler to design and preferred by most teams.

  • To help structure the trailing arm research and design more, make a confluence page on your research and findings. Some things to include on this page are:

  • Start a reference sketch for the trailing arm - you can do this by setting fixed lines to model the chassis and then similar to the starter project CAD, sketch hardpoint/reference lines for your shock, and trailing arm structure.

    • you may want to do multiple iterations / configurations

    • model the movement of it as well similar to how we did on the initial - you can do this by either constraining everything except the shock and moving the ground/wheel

      • so you can use a shock CAD assembly that moves OR for now use a line

    • work with jonathan and ask SAMI for unsprung integration = how will the trailing arm interface w the wheel and are there hardpoints / reference lines that need to be there to account for that?

  • geometry considerations: shock mounting point both inboard and outboard, how long do you want the trailing arm structure ( think about loads on it and travel expected/needed), shock travel you want (~2.25>> of travel), your shock will be much bigger / longer than the ones we use in the front so dont reference those types (205-230 mm shocks probably arent what we are looking for but you can look into that and let me know if those can be integrated fine)