Upright

It has been a while since I have written an update about my work, but I was working on the
steering wheel which won’t be shown at the moment because it is not finished yet. The work on
it will be postponed a bit.

In this post, I will explain a little bit how I made the 3D printed front upright of the car.

To begin with, let me explain what an upright is. It is the main structural element of the wheel
assembly. It supports the axial bearing, the brake caliper and transmits all the forces from the
wheel to the suspension members. It has the upper and lower suspension wishbones connected to
it, the steering rod also.

In the picture above you can see an example of wheel assembly which has all the members
connected to the upright.
In a Formula 1 car, the wheel assembly should have the minimum mass possible which leads the
teams to work on the upright and brake caliper mass. The material that has to be used should
have the minimum density but also which can support the forces applied to it and be permitted
by the regulations.

In my case, I am making 3D printed parts which are from the same material which is PLA+ and
has defined mechanical properties. It is not isotropic due to the fact that in 3D printing the parts
are printed in layers from the bottom to the top. So in the same direction of the layer, the material
can support forces the most but if you apply forces normal to the layer, the breakage point will
be lower. I will try to run simulations on my laptop when I can but at the moment I don’t have
the plugin for simulation on the software that I am using. Plus the simulation will not change
anything except that it will give me an idea of how much force can my parts endure or when they
might break.

Upright Design

To design an upright, different variables must be accounted for and a compromise between them
and the FIA Formula 1 regulations must be made. These variables are the Kingpin Inclination
(KPI), the Scrub Radius or the Kingpin Offset, the Caster Angle and Caster Trail.

Let’s explain each of them.

Kingpin Inclination (KPI)

The Kingpin inclination also known as KPI is the steering axis inclination. It is the front view
angle between the center line of the wheel and the line passing between the upper and lower ball-
joints (the steering axis). According to the book “Race Car Vehicle Dynamics”, this angle must
be less than 8 degrees on rear wheel drive cars. I decided to define it as 8 degrees on my upright
due to the fact that I can not go less than that with the dimensions that I have on my 1/4 scale car.
The picture below show this angle with the scrub radius which we will explain next.
Scrub Radius or Kingpin offset

The scrub radius or kingpin offset is the lateral distance between these two lines at the road
level. An excessive scrub radius means that any out of balance forces acting on the front wheels
cause a moment to be transmitted to the steering system. Thus, if one front wheel hits an
obstruction, or road conditions cause uneven braking, the driver would have to resist a sudden
pull at the steering wheel. The aim, therefore, is to keep the scrub radius to a value below 40mm.
In my case, I must accept whatever scrub radius I get from the chosen angle which is 8 degrees.
So the one I got is 26.55mm.

Caster Angle and Caster Trail

Caster angle is the side view angle between the center line of the wheel and the line passing
between the upper and lower ball-joints (the steering axis). Caster trail also known as
mechanical trail is the longitudinal distance between these two lines at the road level as shown
by the picture below.
Caster trail is the primary mechanism for providing the self centering effect to the steering
wheel. It is also required for straight line stability. A car with inadequate caster trail is liable to
oscillate, in a weaving fashion, on straights as the driver repeatedly corrects for backlash. A
minimum caster trail value of 15mm appears to be adequate for this purpose. It has been known
for designers to adopt a large caster angle to get the benefits of negative camber change, but to
combine this with negative side view kingpin offset to keep the total caster trail reasonable as
shown by the picture below.
I decided to chose a caster angle of 5 degrees with a positive caster trail of 3.72mm which is
equal to the negative kingpin offset value.