Team Chassis

The Aluminum Chassis team consists of students on the Master's degree course in Mechanical Engineering. The students are in their 1st or 2nd semester and are supervised by Prof. Dr. Matthias Müller.

In terms of content, the aluminum chassis discipline is divided into three different work packages.

The first work package deals with the design and simulation of the crash management system. Here, FEM calculations are used to analyze the deformations and force levels of the structure.

Various FEM simulations are set up in the FEM calculation & simulation work package. For example, the natural frequencies of the chassis are determined using modal analysis. Elastic-Strain-Energy (ESE) plots are used to visualize the load paths in the chassis. Based on this, profiles in the chassis can now be optimized and a frequency response analysis can be set up. This allows the local stiffnesses in the chassis to be calculated.

The last work package is the chassis design. In this work package, the chassis is modeled in the CAD program SolidWorks. Adjustments have to be made in constant communication with the other teams.

A crash management system was completely designed and calculated using explicit FEM simulation. An almost constant force curve was achieved over the entire deformation. This made it possible to reduce the force input into the chassis.

Modal analyses were carried out on the chassis. The focus of the analysis is on the bending and torsional natural frequency. The frequency response analysis was applied at various hard points in order to subsequently determine the local dynamic stiffness. The chassis was adapted based on the results.

In the course of the last two semesters, an aluminum chassis was created on the basis of a steel chassis. Continuous model improvements were made based on calculation results and connection points to other components (chassis, engine, etc.) were added.