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STATIC STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF MONOCOQUE CHASSIS

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 11, July-2015
STATIC STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF MONOCOQUE CHASSIS
Shreepathi.K1, Guruprasad H.L2, Dr. J.N Prakash3, Dr. Maruthi B.H4
1
M.Tech scholar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, EWIT, Bangalore, India
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, EWIT, Bangalore, India
3
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SJCET, Anantapur, AP, India
4
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, EWIT, Bangalore, India
Abstract: Automobile chassis is a skeletal frame and
usually refers to the lower body of the vehicle. The chassis
frame is an important part in race car and provides
necessary support to various mechanical parts like engine,
tires, axle assemblies, brake, steering etc which are placed
on it. The frame should be strong and stiff to stand against
vibrations, shocks, twist, and other stresses. Traditionally,
the most common materials for manufacturing vehicle have
been steel and aluminium. In the present work for
reduction weight traditional materials are replaced with
composite materials (E-glass/Epoxy). The work is focused
on the static structural analysis of race car monocoque
chassis made of composite material (E-glass/epoxy).The
model for chassis developed using CATIA V5 R20.
Preprocessing has done with Hypermesh software, non-
linear analysis performed using ANSYS Prep7 solver and
post processed using ANSYS Post26.
Keywords: Monocoque chassis, E-glass/epoxy, Static
structural analysis, Maximum Displacement, Maximum
Von-mises Stresses.
I. INTRODUCTION
Automotive chassis is a skeletal frame on which different
mechanical parts like axle assemblies, steering, brakes, tires,
engine, drive train, batteries, suspension systems etc are
fixed. Chassis is the most important and decisive component
of automobile, which gives strength and stability, flexibility
to the vehicle under various circumstances. Chassis is
considered as the backbone of any vehicle, which supports
various parts like engine, axle assemblies, steering etc. Tie
bars are fasteners used to bind different auto parts together.
Automotive frames fundamentally fabricated from steel,
where as aluminium is another raw material which can be
used to manufacture auto frames. At manufacturing, the body
of a vehicle is easily molded according to the structure of
chassis. It gives strength needed for supporting vehicular
parts and payload placed on it, helps in keeping an
automobile rigid, stiff and unbending. Chassis reduces noise,
harshness and vibrations of the automobile.
A. Ladder chassis
Ladder chassis is the oldest type of chassis. It separates the
passenger cabin and road vibration, which makes its presence
in trucks and SUVs till today. It is of two longitudinal rails
interconnected by number of lateral and cross braces. Ladder
chassis resembles a shape of ladder. The advantages of this
chassis are, it can be built easily using hands and also it is
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ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718
economical.
B. Backbone chassis
Backbone chassis is a simple chassis usually in rectangular
section with strong tubular backbone which connects the
front and rear axle. Both ends of the backbone are connected
with the drive train, engine, and suspensions. It is cheap for
volume production since it can be easily made by hand. To
great extent saves space because of its simple structure.
C. Tubular Space Frame Chassis
Tubular space frame chassis frequently used in race cars and
high performance sports cars because of its high strength.
Dozens of circular section tubes are welded together to make
the tubular space frame chassis and positioned in variety of
directions to give mechanical strength in opposite to forces
from all directions.
D. Monocoque Chassis
Monocoque is a one-piece structure which gives overall
shape of the car. One piece chassis built by welding number
of different pieces together. The largest piece floor pan and
other pieces press made by big stamping machines. Robot
arms are used to spot weld different pieces together in a
production line and it consumes few minutes to carry out the
desired work. Then, some auxiliaries like doors, side panels,
boot lid, bonnet are added.
II. PROBLEM STATEMENT
Every race car chassis faces variety of performance
challenges in which the chassis of the car will be key factor
in the success of the vehicle. Weight of the vehicle
influences the vehicle performance and fuel efficiency. Since
the composite material have strength, stiffness and light
weight compared to monolithic materials, thus they found
greater application in the design of race car’s chassis. Static
structural analysis of FASE race car’s monocoque chassis
made of E-Glass is the problem statement.
III. OBJECTIVES
Static structural analysis of the FSAE race car’s monocoque
chassis should be done using composite material (E-
Glass/Epoxy) and varying the ply orientations of the
laminate to reduce weight of the chassis.
IV. METHODOLOGY
A. Material selection
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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 11, July-2015 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

Selection of material for design and analysis of any

component is important. Mainly steel and aluminum material
are used for the fabrication of chassis which reduces the
weight of the vehicle thus improves the power to weight
ratio. Material selection contributes in reducing chassis
deflection as well as to increase chassis strength. In this
project composite material used for the monocoque chassis is
the E-Glass/Epoxy.

B. Modeling
Three dimensional monocoque chassis is modeled using
CATIA V5 R20 and saved in ‘.CATPart’ file. Figure 1 shows
isometric view of a monocoque chassis.

Fig.3. Monocoque chassis subjected with loads and boundary

conditions

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Static structural Analysis of monocoque chassis made of
E-Glass/Epoxy
Static structural analysis of monocoque chassis made of E-
glass/Epoxy using constant lamina thickness of .6mm and
different ply orientations performed for the given loading
and boundary conditions by ANSYS Software. Analysis
Fig.1. Isometric view of a monocoque chassis results and plots are given below.
Table I Ply orientations and thickness for Static Structural
C. Meshing Analysis
After modeling monocoque chassis, ‘.step’ file is imported Case
Ply orientations Thickness
into Hypermesh. In Hypermesh initially geometrical clean-up (degree) (mm)
operation is performed on the model, then choosing shell 1 30/45/0/-45/-30 3
element of size 4mm meshing operation is performed on the
surface in the meanwhile 1D bar element is used for meshing 2 60/90/0/-90/-60 3
rods or tubes. Totally 143872 nodes and 143643 elements are 3 30/45/0/0/-45/-30 3.6
used to mesh the monocoque chassis. Finite elements are 4 60/90/0/0/-90/-60 3.6
checked for free edges between the elements, connectivity, 5 15/30/45/0/-45/-30/-15 4.2
quality and normal’s.
6 30/60/90/0/-90/-60/-30 4.2

Table II. Static Structural Analysis Results of monocoque

chassis made of E- Glass/Epoxy
Maximum
Weight of Maximum
Von-Mises
chassis Displacement
Stress
(tons) (mm)
(MPa)
1.5273E-2 90.57 37.134
1.5273E-2 82.349 30.699
1.8328E-2 61.747 21.488
Fig.2. Top view of a meshed monocoque chassis 1.8328E-2 57.617 17.662
2.1383E-2 50.187 14.066
D. Loads and boundary conditions
In this work driver’s and engine’s load of 735N, 353N 2.1383E-2 45.568 12.778
applied vertically on the independent node of the rigid link at
the appropriate place of the monocoque chassis along with B. Static Structural Analysis Plot
gravitational force acting on the entire monocoque chassis. 6 Case 1
DOF’s are arrested at the front, rear suspension system. For thickness 3mm and Ply orientations 30/45/0/-45/-30

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 11, July-2015 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

Fig.4. Von-Mises Stress Plot

Fig.8. Displacement Plot

Fig.9. Material Failure using Tsai-Hill failure theory Plot

Fig.5. Displacement Plot For chassis of thickness 3mm and ply orientations 60/90/0/-
90/-60 the maximum Von-Mises stress induced in the
material is 82.349MPa as shown in figure 7 and the
maximum displacement of the chassis is 30.699mm which is
shown in figure 8. The thickness of the chassis at driver
location didn’t sustain the load so it failed according to
margin of safety of Tsai-Hill failure theory for angle lamina
shown in figure 9.
Case 3
Fig.6. Material Failure using Tsai-Hill failure theory Plot For thickness 3.6mm and Ply orientation 30/45/0/0/-45/-30
Figure 4, figure 5 shows Von-Mises stress plot and
displacement plot respectively of FSAE race car monocoque
3mm thickness chassis made up composite material (E-
Glass/Epoxy) of 5 laminas of thickness .6mm with ply
orientations 30/45/0/-45/-30 with respect to reference axis.
The maximum Von-Mises stress and maximum displacement
of the chassis at the driver’s location are 90.57MPa and
37.134mm. The material fails at the driver’s location for the
given loading and boundary conditions according to margin Fig.10. Von-Mises Stress Plot
of safety of Tsai-Hill failure theory for angle lamina as
shown in figure 6, so chassis of thickness 3mm and ply
orientations [30/45/0/-45/-30] can’t be used for the chassis
design and fabrication for the given loading and boundary
conditions.
Case 2
For thickness 3mm and Ply orientations
60/90/0/-90/-60

Fig.11. Displacement Plot

Fig.7. Von-Mises Stress Plot Fig.12. Material Failure using Tsai-Hill failure theory Plot

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 11, July-2015 ISSN (Online): 2347 - 4718

For Chassis of thickness 3.6mm made using 6 laminas each

having .6mm thickness and ply orientations 30/45/0/0/-45/-
30, the Von-Mises stress plot shown in figure 10 and
Displacement plot is shown in figure 11. The material does
not fail according to margin of safety of Tsai- Hill failure
theory as shown in figure 12 for the given loading and
boundary conditions. So chassis of thickness 3.6mm and ply
orientations 30/45/0/0/-45/-30 can be used for the design
and fabrication of FSAE race car monocoque chassis.
Case 4
For thickness 3.6mm and Ply orientations 60/90/0/0/-90/-60 Fig.16. Von-Mises Stress Plot

Fig.13. Von-Mises Stress Plot Fig.17. Displacement Plot

Fig.18. Material Failure using Tsai-Hill failure theory Plot

For thickness of chassis 4.2mm and ply orientations
Fig.14. Displacement Plot
15/30/45/0/-45/-30/-15 Von-Mises stress plot and
displacement plot are given in figure 516 and figure
17.Material failure plot using Tsai-Hill failure theory shown
in figure 18.
Case 6
For thickness 4.2mm and Ply orientations
30/60/90/0/-90/-60/-30

Fig.15. Material Failure using Tsai-Hill failure theory Plot

The maximum Von-Mises stress induced 57.617MPa and
maximum displacement of the chassis is 17.662mm for
chassis of thickness 3.6mm and ply orientations [60/90/0/0/-
90/-60] are shown in figure 13 and figure 14. But the Fig.19. Von-Mises Stress Plot
maximum Von-Mises stress at the critical region of chassis
does not failed the material according to margin of safety of
Tsai-Hill failure theory of angle lamina. So this 60/90/0/0/-
90/-60 combination of ply orientations for chassis thickness
can also sustain the given loading and boundary conditions
without fail.
Case 5
Thickness 4.2mm and Ply orientations
15/30/45/0/-45/-30/-15
Fig.20. Displacement Plot

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International Journal For Technological Research In Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 11, July-2015
Fig.21. Material Failure using Tsai-Hill failure theory Plot
From the results in the table 1 for thickness 3mm and ply
orientations 30/45/0/-45/-30 the maximum stress induced in
the material and displacement of the materials are 90.57 MPa
and 37.134mm respectively. For the same 3mm thickness
with ply orientations 60/90/0/-90/-60 the stress induced in the
material and displacement of the material are 82.349 MPa
and 30.699mm respectively which are less than the values
obtained for ply orientations 30/45/0/-45/-30. From figure 6
and 9 for thickness with ply orientations 30/45/0/-45/-30 and
60/90/0/-90/-60 the material fails at the driver location for the
given loading and boundary conditions according to failure
parameter margin of safety of Tsai-Hill failure theory for
angle lamina. Thus thickness of the monocoque chassis
increased to 3.6mm by introducing one more lamina to the
3mm thickness. In this case for the ply orientations
60/90/0/0/-90/-60 the stress induced in the material and
displacement for the given loading and boundary conditions
are less than for ply orientations 30/45/0/0/-45/-30. For
3.6mm thickness material does not fail according to failure
parameter margin of safety of Tsai-Hill failure theory for
both ply orientations.
VI. CONCLUSION
In the present work effort has been made to reduce the weight
of the FSAE race car’s monocoque chassis by using
composite material (E-Glass/Epoxy) in order to increase the
vehicle’s performance and fuel efficiency.
From the static structural analysis it can be concluded that,
 For any thickness of monocoque chassis stress in the
material and displacement of the material depends
on the ply orientations.
 Thickness of 3.6mm and above can be used for the
manufacture of FSAE race car’s monocoque chassis
for the given loading and boundary conditions.
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