RMIT UNIVERSITY

Finite Element Analysis of a spaceframe chassis for an

FSAE racing car


Suraj Suresh Bijjahalli
10/19/2014






1. Abstract
Concept modelling with the aid of Finite Element Analysis commercial packages offers the means of
quickly iterating through the design process. The R-14E is an open wheeled electric car designed by
RMIT university students for competing in the Formula-SAE competition. The spaceframe chassis of
the car is modelled and subjected to Modal analysis and Frequency Response Analysis by using
Commercial Finite Element Analysis packages for the purpose of understanding the structural
dynamics of the vehicle, and validating the existing design. The results of the analysis highlights the
ability of the design to meet the key requirements for competing in FSAE. A Recommendation is
proposed that can deliver greater structural stiffness with an acceptable increase in weight.

2. Introduction and background
Concept modelling
Fragmented and fluctuating market demand has highlighted the importance of rapid product
development in order to bring products to the market before the competition. With advances in Finite
Element Analysis softwares, the concept development prior to the detailed design stage can be
arrived at and frozen relatively quickly. CAE allows for the virtual development of the envisaged
vehicle, and simulates the loads assumed to be acting on the car in real-life conditions in order to test
its response to external forces, thereby identifying the structural dynamics of the car early on. This
technique reduces the number of physical tests and measurements required to validate the product.
This study analyses the R-14E, RMITs electric racing car competing in the Formula-SAE
competition in 2014. A model of the spaceframe chassis is constructed in HYPERMESH, and the
modes of vibration and their frequencies are computed using NASTRAN. The results are visualised in
HYPERVIEW, and recommendations are made which can improve the performance of the vehicle.
Modes of vibration and resonance frequencies
Modal analysis is the study of the dynamic response of structures under excitation (external)
vibrational forces. A key outcome of using FEM in Modal analysis is finding out the natural
frequencies of a component/structure. The Natural frequency () of a structure is the frequency at
which it will vibrate in the absence of an excitation force, and depends on the Mass (m) and Stiffness
(k), which are properties of the structure.
Under excitation forces, vibration amplitudes reach peak values when the frequency of
the forces approaches the natural frequencies of the structure.


Figure 1 - Frequency Response Function showing high response at Resonance frequencies
Figure (1) shows a plot of the Frequency response function of a structure subjected to
excitation by an external force plotted against the excitation frequency. The frequency response
function is simply the ratio of Output (displacement) to Input (excitation force). It is observed from
Figure (1) that the frequency response theoretically approaches infinity at frequencies

and

(which are the natural frequencies of the structure), in other words, it can be said that when the
frequency of the excitation force matches the natural frequency of the structure, a very small
force is observed to cause a large amplitude of vibration.
The space-frame will exhibit similar resonance phenomena under excitation forces that have the
same frequency as the spaceframes natural frequency.
In real life, all structures have structural damping properties that will prevent the vibration from
reaching a value of infinity. Nevertheless, the increased amplitudes can adversely impact the contact
patch at the tyres and cause discomfort and noise to the driver, and may induce structural damage in
the vehicle if large enough.

The FEM software is used to solve the characteristic equation
([]

[] Equation 1 - characteristic equation based on equation of motion of structure
Where [K] is the stiffness matrix of the structure, [M] is its Mass matrix, {U} is the displacement
vector, and is the natural frequency. This equation is the Eigen-value problem formulated from the
equations of motion of the given frame. The roots of this equation are the values of (natural
frequency) which are referred to as Eigen values.
In general, the frequency at which a particular mode will occur can be shifted beyond the range of
any excitation frequencies by increasing the stiffness and /or reducing the mass.
Adding Dampening material can reduce the resonance amplitude and is another option
available to optimise the frame design.
The advantage of the analysis is that it can assist in identifying where stiffness, mass and
dampening of the frame can be optimized without building a prototype early in the design stage.

Competition format
The Formula SAE Series competitions challenge teams of university students to conceive, design,
fabricate, develop and compete with small, formula style, vehicles that can successfully compete in all
the events described in the FSAE Rules.
The performance of the car will be assessed over the course of several dynamic events.
Acceleration: The acceleration event evaluates the cars acceleration in a straight line on flat
pavement. Course Layout The acceleration course length will be 75 m from starting-line to finish-
line. The acceleration score is based upon the elapsed time measured from the time the car crosses the
starting line until it crosses the finish line.

Skid-Pad: The objective of the skid-pad event is to measure the cars cornering ability on a flat
surface while making a constant-radius turn. There will be two pairs of concentric circles in a figure
of eight pattern. The centres of these circles will be 18.25 m apart. The cars will enter and exit
through gates on a 3.0 m wide path that is tangential to the circles where they meet.

Figure 2-Skidpad track that tests lateral acceleration capability of the car
The cars will enter perpendicular to the figure eight and will take one full lap on the right circle to
establish the turn. Lateral acceleration (typically referred to as Gs) is computed from 2.012
diameter/t. A diameter of 17.10 m will be assumed in computing lateral Gs.
The map of the skidpad track is illustrated in figure (2).
Autocross: The objective of the autocross event is to evaluate the car's manoeuvrability and handling
qualities on a tight course without the hindrance of competing cars. The autocross course will
combine the performance features of acceleration, braking, and cornering into one event.
Average speeds should be 40 km/hr. to 48 km/hr.
The track has a series of features that must be successfully navigated such as straights, constant turns,
hairpin turns and slaloms
It can be observed from the dynamic event descriptions that in order to be competitive, the design
must impart certain performance characteristics such as
High straight-line/longitudinal acceleration

High lateral acceleration/cornering stability: weight transfer to the outer side of the vehicle
during a cornering manoeuvre tends to roll the vehicle about its longitudinal axis, resulting
in lowered contact patch at the inside tyres. A car that can resist the tendency to roll will have
a competitive edge.
Apart from these two dynamic performance parameters, the design of the car is also assessed in terms
of the expense incurred for design and manufacture.
Excitation force -Road input
Road undulations can be considered as acceleration inputs at the contact patches. Although each
individual road surface has a unique profile, from the perspective of optimizing the ride of the car, the
frequency range of these acceleration inputs mainly lies between 0-25 Hz. (Gillespie 1986)
If any resonance frequencies of the spaceframe lie within or close to this range, the road input can
potentially excite high vibration that can adversely impact the contact patch and driveability of the
car.
R-14E design proposal
The R-14E is an open wheeled racer with a steel tubular spaceframe chassis, which supports the
battery boxes, high and low voltage boxes, and the bulkhead, which in turn supports the motor and
drivetrain.
The primary goal of the members working on the spaceframe is to achieve maximum torsional rigidity
with minimum weight. This is in line with the requirement to deliver cornering stability and quick
acceleration times that will be tested in the skid pad, acceleration and autocross events.
Spaceframe specifications
The following specifications have been proposed by the team in order to meet the design requirements
Material: AISI 4130 N CHROMIUM MOLYBDENUM (chromolly) STEEL TUBING
Chromium-Molybdenum Steel has been chosen as the material for the spaceframe tubing owing to
Greater yield strength when compared to cheaper low-carbon steel. This allows the use of
thinner cross-sectional thickness.
Easy fusion welding
Corrosion Resistance
Tube cross sections:
25.4 2.4 round tube Front and Rear roll hoops
25.4 1.65 round tube Structural members that support the bulkhead
25.4 2.4 round tube- Front and Rear roll hoops
25 251.25 Square hollow section members that support the nose cone


The CAD model of the R-14E is shown in figure(3)

Figure 3-CAD model of the R-14E car
The height of the Rear-Roll hoop, although undesirable from the point of view of structural stiffness,
is a compulsory safety regulation. This is to provide protection for the driver in the event of a roll-
over incident.
The Thickness of the cross-sections is set in accordance with the SAE safety specifications.
Weight of Space frame: 42 kg (including all mounting brackets)
The weight of the spaceframe is a parameter that must be carefully controlled in order to be
competitive in the dynamic events. Any modifications to the spaceframe that adversely impact the
weight target would be undesirable.

3. Objective
The objective is to model the R-14E, and to analyse the model to estimate its resonance frequencies
and modes of vibration, which can aid in design optimization of the car so as to avoid resonance
conditions that can be excited from road inputs. The modal analysis and the FRF analysis can help
validate the design, and can provide suitable justification when explaining the design to the
competition judges. HYPERMESH software is used to develop the model, and Solver 103 in
Msc.NASTRAN is used to analyse it to determine its modes of vibration and frequencies. The
vibration modes are validated by performing a Frequency response analysis using Solver 111 in
NASTRAN. The analysis enables an optimized design early in the process, and reduces trial-and-error
once the car is built.

4. Model description and procedure
a. Geometry
Nodes at the junction of different members are plotted. The structural members of the frame are
geometrically represented by lines connected at the nodes as shown in figure (4). The node positions
were obtained from the CAD model of the vehicle and represent junctions where members are joined
together.


Figure 4-Geometry of the R-14E spaceframe generated by connecting nodes


Table 1-Outer diameter (mm) and thickness (mm) of spaceframe tubes


25.4 2.4 round tube-Front and Rear roll hoops
25.4 1.65 round tube-Structural members that support the bulkhead
25.4 1.25 round tube-Front section members
25.4 251.25 Rectangular hollow section-members supporting crash attenuator


The lines are discretized into a finite number of elements. The type of element chosen, and the
number of elements is a compromise between accuracy and computational time and memory
b. Element type
1-Dimensional (beam elements): 1-Dimensional beam (line) elements are used to model the geometry.
The result is a simplified model of the actual specimen to which properties such as cross-section and
modulus of elasticity are assigned.
A beam element can support axial as well as transverse loads (bending). CBEAM elements are
used in this exercise and PBEAM property entry is used to define the properties of the element.
The cross-sectional areas of the members are assigned to the lines using the component option along
with the material properties (Chromium-Molybdenum steel, in this case) so that the solver can
simulate response to normal and bending loads. The Outer diameters and thicknesses assigned to the
members are shown in table (1)

The cross-sectional areas and thickness are assigned to the lines along with the following material
properties of Chromium-Molybdenum steel
Youngs Modulus : 210 Gpa
Poissons ratio : 0.3
Density : 7.8 /c.c















Figure (5) shows the views of the frame after assigning the cross section and material properties, and
meshing the members into finite elements.

Figure 5-Side view, front view and bottom view of the meshed model of the spaceframe


The mass of the space-frame is calculated by the software to be 39.625 kg. This can be used as
the baseline mass when attempting make changes to the model later on.
The use of 1-Dimensional elements is a simplification of real-life conditions, and can be used in
the initial stages of developing the concept, where a high level of accuracy is not required. Beam
elements are also limited in their application in that they cannot account for shear stresses.
3-Dimensional solid elements are an alternative when the member thickness is high, resulting in shear
stresses. Solid elements, however, are computationally more expensive than Beam elements
consequently requiring more memory and time for results.
c. Solver
A Normal modes analysis is performed using NASTRAN Solver 103. The solver is a sequence
routine or a module written in FORTRAN, which yields natural frequencies and modes of vibration of
the given geometry.
NASTRAN Solver 111 is used to obtain the frequency response spectrum of selected nodes. The
solver applies excitation force at the user-specified input nodes across the specified frequency range
in order to obtain the response of the spaceframe. The applied forces
can be
In-phase: This simulates road inputs at the tyres that act in the
same direction and cause the vehicle to pitch.




Out of phase: This simulates road inputs at the tyres that act in
opposite directions and cause the vehicle to roll about its
longitudinal axis.
















Figure 6- in-phase inputs cause pitch
mode
Figure 7-Out-of phase inputs cause roll
mode
5. Results
a. Modal Analysis
Although the space-frame has potentially infinite number of natural frequencies and modes, we are
interested in frequencies that fall within the low frequency range between 0-25 Hz in which road
undulation forces occur (Gillespie 1986). Six modes of Vibration in the frequency range between 0-
100 Hz are extracted and are shown in Figure (8).


Figure 8 - Mode shapes and resonance frequencies of the R-14E spaceframe

b. Frequency Response Function
Analysing the model by using Solver 111 for frequency response requires user specified values for
Input Nodes: Excitation forces are applied at these nodes. The forces can either be in-
phase or out of phase.
Output Nodes: The response is presented for these nodes.
Frequency Range: this specifies the frequency range of the excitation force.




Case 1: In-phase force applied at front suspension mounts
The locations of the nodes at which in-phase input forces are applied, and the nodes at which output
response is requested is shown in Fig(9).The corresponding Frequency Response Function for the
front suspension mounting points is shown in figure(10).



Figure 9 in-phase input nodes and output request locations


Figure 10 - FRF plot of front mounts when subjected in in-phase inputs

Case 2: Out-of-phase force applied at front suspension mounts
The locations of the nodes at which Out-of-phase input forces are applied, and the nodes at which
output response is requested is shown in Fig(11).The corresponding Frequency Response Function is
shown in figure(12).













Figure 12- FRF plot of front suspension mounts subjected to out of phase excitation


Figure 11-out of phase input nodes and output request nodes
6. Discussion
It can be observed that the maximum deformations occur in different regions depending on the mode
of vibration. The type of modes and its frequency in the range of interest is shown in table (2).
R-14 E spaceframe
Mode Number Mode Type Frequency(Hz)
7 1st Torsion 48.54
8 Bending(Local mode) 60.69
9 Bending(Local mode) 66.32
10 2nd Torsion 79.77
Table 2-Mode shapes and resonant frequencies of current R-14E spaceframe
The Frequency Response Function (Accelerance) of the spaceframe is plotted against the excitation
frequency for different configurations of loads applied at the suspension mounts
In Phase loading at front suspension mounts
Out of Phase loading at Front suspension mounts
From the mode shape contour, the first resonance frequency occurs at 48.54 Hz, well above the
frequency range of road inputs, and is a torsional mode as verified by the accelerance plot of the
suspension mounts in response to Out of phase excitation force applied at the front and rear
suspension mounts. Figure (13) shows the mode shapes that correspond to the resonance peaks of the
FRF plot of the front suspension mounts.

Figure 13 FRF plot of front suspension mounts subjected to out of phase excitation showing corresponding mode
shapes at resonance peaks
The first bending mode occurs at 60.69 Hz as verified by the FRF plot of the suspension mounts in
response to In-phase excitation force applied at the front and rear suspension mounts. This mode is
observed to be a local mode (bending of rear left bulkhead support). Another local bending mode can
be observed at 66.39 Hz. These local bending modes are represented by the resonance peaks on the
FRF plot when the mounts are subjected to in-phase excitation as shown in figure (14). Both these
modes can be addressed when the bulk head is fixed on to the space frame, and hence, do not
represent an area of concern.


Figure 14- FRF plot of front suspension mounts subjected to in-phase excitation showing corresponding mode shapes at
resonance peaks
However, the next significant global mode is at 79.77 Hz and is a torsional mode as validated by the
resonance peak in the Out-of-Phase FRF plot.
There is a potential for any of these modes or a combination of these modes to occur, causing loss of
contact patch at the tyres, which results in loss of traction and possibly, discomfort or structural
damage if any excitation forces have the same frequency as the mode.
The key task is to anticipate what excitation forces will act on the car during the course of service, and
whether the frequency of any forces match the natural frequencies determined here. If so, measures
can be taken in the concept stage that can eliminate resonance phenomena.
The simulation results indicate that there is very little likelihood of the road inputs exciting resonances
in the spaceframe. However, a physical test is required to further validate this statement.
The prevention of resonance can be accomplished by increasing the stiffness of the structure by
incorporating certain design features such as
1. Adding reinforcing stiffeners: it is necessary to analyse which members are susceptible to
resonance at a frequency of interest and add members to reinforce them.
2. Changing the cross-section of the beam members in order to increase the Area Moment of
inertia of the beams, thereby increasing their bending stiffness. This reduces the tendency of
the beams to flex.

This changes the natural frequency and shifts the associated vibration mode beyond the frequency of
any excitation forces that may act on the car during its life.
Option 2 is proposed as a future design change that can potentially result in a structurally stiff frame
without overly compromising on the low-weight requirement.

7. Recommendation
The cross sections of the members are changed by increasing the outer radius of each member to
simulate 1.25 inch tubes. (The Outer diameter of the tube members increases from 25.4 mm to
31.75mm)
The material used remains the same (Chromium Molybdenum Steel). The changes in the tube
thicknesses are shown in table(3)



Table 3 - increase in tube thicknesses
On changing the cross-sections of the model accordingly, the weight of the proposed spaceframe is
calculated to be 41.685 kg. This is an increase of 2.06 kg from the original spaceframe.


Round tube-Front and Rear roll hoops : Thickness reduced from 2.4 mm to 2mm
Round tube-Structural members that support the bulkhead : Thickness reduced from 1.65mm to 1.4mm
Round tube-Front section members : Thickness reduced from 1.25mm to 1 mm
Rectangular hollow section-Members supporting crash attenuator
The mode shapes of the proposed spaceframe are shown in figure (15), and the Frequency Response
Function for Out-of-Phase excitation applied at the front wheels are shown in figure (16).

Figure 15 - Mode shapes and resonance frequencies of the modified (proposed) R-14E spaceframe


Figure 16 - FRF plot showing mode shapes at resonance peaks for modified (proposed) R-14E subjected to out-of-phase
excitation

Table (3) illustrates the comparison between the R-14E spaceframe and the proposed spaceframe.
Mode
Number
R-14 E spaceframe Proposed spaceframe Shift in
resonance
frequency
(%)
Mode Type Frequency(Hz) Mode Type Frequency(Hz)
7 1st Torsion 48.54 1st Torsion 60.52 19.80
8 Bending(Local mode) 60.69 Bending(Local mode) 76.96 21.14
9 Bending(Local mode) 66.32 Bending(Local mode) 84.21 21.24
10 2nd Torsion 79.77 2nd Torsion 93.61 14.78
Table 4 - Comparison between modes and resonant frequencies of current spaceframe and proposed spaceframe
It can be observed that the proposed spaceframe is heavier by a marginal amount, it offers greater
structural stiffness that shifts the first resonance frequency by 19.80%. The modes themselves are
similar to those observed in the current spaceframe, only shifted to higher frequency ranges. A zone
of anti-resonance can be observed in the FRF plot at 30 Hz. Anti-resonance implies that the mounts
are stable at that frequency and will remain stable if an excitation having that frequency is applied.
8. Conclusion
Concept car modelling can accelerate the iterative process prior to design freeze without requiring
extensive physical testing.
1-Dimensional elements (beam elements) can be used to estimate the modes of bending of the concept
quickly and without excessive computational power. This can guide the designer to modify the
concept early in the design process by modifying members or adding reinforcement to prevent
resonance.

If the input excitation frequencies that may occur during the life of the vehicle are known, then the
obtained result is useful since the designer can now focus attention on stiffening the chassis so that the
resonance frequencies are shifted beyond the excitation frequency range.
The spaceframe of the R-14E as given by the existing design is modelled and discretized using
CBEAM elements, to which material and section properties are assigned.
To obtain the free vibration modes and their resonance frequencies, which are inherent properties of
the structure, the model is solved by using Solver 103 of MSc. NASTRAN.
The modes of vibration are identified by using Solver 111 in which the model is subjected to
excitation force across the frequency range of interest, and the response at the suspension mounting
points are plotted against the excitation frequency.
A recommendation is proposed which makes use of tubes having a larger outer diameter. This
effectively increases the area moment of inertia of the cross-sections, thereby increasing the stiffness
of the spaceframe, as seen in the mode shapes and FRF plots that show an upward shift in the
resonance frequencies. This greater structural stiffness can offer better handling capabilities, but this
must be weighed against the disadvantage of the added weight of 2.06 kg. Justification will be needed
for the competition judges for reducing the cross-sectional thickness of the tubular members and the
structural integrity will need to be validated by means of a physical test.

Bibliography
Gillespie, Thomas. Fundamentals of vehicle dynamics. 1986.