TERM PAPER

TECHNIQUES APPLIED FOR WEIGHT REDUCTION OF ELECTRIC CAR

DESIGN

Introduction
Normally in high performance car applications it is the interest for reduced vehicle mass while
keeping up appropriate execution and security. The way of the autocross style course supports
vehicles with great speeding up capacities, and both the efficiency and quickening occasions
add to the yearning for a lightweight vehicle outline. To expand the speeding up capability of
a vehicle, or race car, material science lets us know that the footing power should be expanded,
however the segments should likewise be sensibly estimated for the cost investigation and
attractive for the business presentation. For instance, inboard suspension could be a more
attractive outline, while detachable suspension may cost less and be simpler to manufacture.

Need of Topology Optimization

Mechanical design problem need the satisfaction of particular objectives while fulfilling an
arrangement of execution impediments. In the automotive worlds it requires different iterations
using FEM happens that drive plot changes, and the final design is much of the time arrived at
through an experimentation methodology. The iteration procedure can end up being a to a great
degree time-taking. This technique has clearly been doable in meeting diagram prerequisites,
the strategy does not by any stretch of the imagination address the best methodologyone and
just that has viably met the objective. Also, the estimation of the keep going arrangement
depends on upon the quality and pending of the fundamental design tries. This is a result of the
path that, as the arrangement advances, the chance to take off fundamental upgrades diminishes
after some time. In this way, in the worry of time and quality, it is amazingly basic to have a
better than average preliminary arrangement course of action at the same time. By and large,
the target for a topology improvement study is to diminish the mass subjected to either nodal
with component thickness as the outline variable.

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Load Cases

Figure below demonstrates the spring loads on the left bell crank because of a worst-case
scenario of the car body moving totally to the left such that the suspension travel is at a greatest
pressure on the left side and most extreme hang on the privilege. For this situation the linear
spring is completely compressed and the anti-roll bar is at maximum twist. As an engineering
constrain was assessed, this force was assessed to be 445 N [2] at a most extreme. Thus the
load case was redesigned to incorporate this constrain.

Procedure for topology optimization

1. Geometry Preparation

The design space already made in a CAD modelling software was transported as an STEP file
format, to get ready for meshing This implies a portion of the lines in the transported in model
were toggled from edge lines to suppressed (or manifold) lines so that they would not represent
an artificial edge that would drive the limited components to pointlessly adjust themselves.

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2. Tetra-Meshing

Once the geometry was designed, the design was loaded with tetrahedral components using the
auto-mesh features. HyperMesh gives a few strategies for producing a tetrahedral mesh. The
standard technique makes tetras from an encased volume of shell components, in addition to a
few parameters. The subsequent mesh was utilized for the topology optimization.

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3. Boundary Conditions

Then material property was assigned [3] and load cases were applied keeping a part as fixed
part as per the following table.

Table 1

4. Optimized initial geometry

As got through Altair Hyper-works (Optistruct), the following figure shows optimized initial
geometry of the bell crank.

Fig-4: Topology optimization result, side view. [1]

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5. Smoothing the edges

Smoothing the external edges and analyzing it for Factor of safety the following geometry is
achieved for machining

Fig-5: Optimized geometry, isometric view (CAD; CATIA V5-R20) [1]

Conclusion:

The final geometry was validated by Finite Element Analysis in Altair Hyper-works and was
confirmed through Hertzian Stress calculator [4]

Fig-6: Von-Mises stress distribution (Hyper-works) [1]

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There has been almost 30% increase in strength coupled with an equally impressive decrease
in mass surely had numerous individuals excited about the computational powers of the
topology optimization algorithm.

REFERENCE:

[1] Altair Hyper works (Optistruct; Solid-Thinking-Inspire), 2014 Student Edition

[2] Thomas D. Gillespie, Fundamentals of vehicle dynamics

[3] Material Property Data, Mat Web, accessed 30 May, 2012, http://www.matweb.com

[4]Hertzian Stress calculator

http://www.amesweb.info/HertzianContact/HertzianContact.aspx

[5] Carroll Smith, Tune to win

Biswajit swain

712me4096

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