Chassis Frame

The current chassis frame is a tubular steel space frame. It has been designed as a result of an ergonomics analysis as well as a  finite element stress analysis considering basic load cases.

Since the space frame is the component that literally holds everything together and defines the position of all components, design changes in other vehicle parts possibly also make changes of the space frame necessary.

One of the objectives of this years design team is the improvement of the rear suspension system. In order to enable this modification the space frame has been redesigned.

For the future it is planned to design the space frame completely from the scratch using an finite element based topology optimization. This optimization will consider the chassis constraints as well as the different possible load cases in more detail. The objective is to considerably reduce the weight, while deliver higher strength and stiffness. However, this new design will not be implemented into the current prototype.