The Roll Cage Roll Cages (MSA General Competion Rules (GCR) 239) i) The purpose of a roll cage

is to prevent, as far as possible, deformation of the cockpit area of a vehicle in an accident, particularly where the vehicle rolls. It stands to reason therefore, that any roll cage used should be capable of fulfilling this function. ii) It is highly recommended that roll cages comply with the regulations and specifications laid down in the FIAs Appendix J, copies of which are available from MSA on request. FIA Appendixs J: 8.1 Definitions 8.1.1) Safety cage: A structural framework designed to prevent serious body shell deformation in the case of a collision or of a car turning over. So what this means is a Roll Over Protection Structure (ROPS) is a reinforcement member(s) installed in to, or on to a vehicle with the intention of protecting the vehicles occupants in the event of a rollover accident or collision. The primary intent of a Roll Cage is to limit the crushing and deformation of the vehicle roof and cabin structure during a rollover accident. This ensures that the vehicle occupants are provided with an adequate amount of survival space which reduces the risk of head, neck/spinal, and upper torso injuries, ultimately preventing death. However, it must be made clear that, a roll cage does not guarantee prevention of death; it is designed to reduce the possibility and severity of injury. From an Engineering point of view, structural engineering is the science and art of designing and making, with economy and elegance, buildings, bridges, frameworks, and other similar structures so that they can safely resist the forces to which they may be subjected. A structural engineer is accordingly a person who practices structural engineering. Structural engineers are responsible for applying engineering principles to ensure that loss of life and damage to property during the lifetime of a structure due to the instability or lack of strength, serviceability or durability of a structure or part thereof is within acceptable and legal limits. Structural engineers need to provide safe and effective solutions with a high degree of certainty to demanding structural requirements where the constraints are often complex and sometimes conflicting. These two paragraphs meant more or less the same thing, in the case of the engineer; if something goes wrong he will probably get fired or jailed, your general roll cage fabricator not. So in whose hands would you put your life if you had to choose? I can honestly say that I have not seen one well engineered roll cage in the HRC (Including my own) and why I would like to cover this in some detail. There are very few book or articles that are any good and refers one to talking to the professionals.they are right. A safety device that will not work correctlyis not a safety device. From the start: Newtons Law 1: A Particle remains at rest or continues to move in a straight line with a uniform velocity if there is no unbalanced force acting on it. Newtons Law2: The acceleration of a particle is proportional to the resultant force acting on it and is in the direction of this force Newtons Law3: The force of action and reaction between interacting bodies are equal in magnitude, opposite in direction, and collinear. All these rules apply to motor racing more that you think. (Future articles will reflect to this) At first this will not make sense but these principles are all around us (Bridges, Roofs, Cranesto the untrained eye they are merely machines). The basis of a strong structure is the Triangle..simple! Going back to high school, a vector diagram will show this. A Load is split up into simpler components (Fig 1). Loads work like electricity and it will follow a path that it is given. (Fig 2)

(Fig 1)

Resultant Vertical Load Main Load or

Fig 2

Main Load or Impact

Impact Resultant Horizontal Load Resultant Load A Resultant Load

So to bring this more into perspective , Fig 3 shows a very triangulated structure of a off road vehicle( In general ,off road vehicles do have some of the best roll/ space frames one can find) You will notice that there are no bends, and if there are, they will be supported by a tube to form a triangle. If we where to say the car rolled and landed on the roof indicated at arrow A , this will represent a load on the top corner , ( calculated by vehicle weight and speed)the load will be split up at the tube intersections( nodes) and run in the tubes-collinearly to the next node. This will again split up at the next node and so and so onall the way to an anchor point. If our anchor points are very strong our structural members have to displace the energies and eventually bend or break our structure between the load point and the anchor point. How much it bends or breaks depends on many factors. The unfortunate thing about the definition of a roll-cage is that predicting the direction and magnitude of the loads encountered by the body shell in an accident is very difficult. It is often said by experts in this industry "you tell me how you're going to crash, and I'll design and build you the perfect cage". This is only true if the accident is not TOO big. History shows that even the most comprehensive roll-cages cannot prevent serious injury or fatality. The important issue here though is to ensure a minor accident doesn't result in serious injury!

Figure 3

Secondary to the critical safety aspect of a Roll Cage, there is also great benefits found in the additional structural rigidity of the vehicle body, which is a result of installation of a ROPS. This improves handling and suspension characteristics of the vehicle, and offering greater scope for tuning these important areas. Therefore, a Roll Cage can be designed to not only protect, but also to improve the vehicles performance at the same time. When choosing a ROPS set up for your vehicle, there is three very important aspects that need to be well planned prior to commencing any work. These areas include, your budget, the type of vehicle, and the type of racing you plan to take part in. It is only with these three areas covered that an effective ROPS solution can be obtained. Budget: Your budget is ultimately the overall limiting factor to what you can do, and what material you should be looking at to obtain the best solution possible. It is also no secret that in general a ROPS is not cheap. The budget is the only part that is directly linked to the other 2 factors. The more money you have the better cage is suppose to be, right.wrong!! Your first consideration, assuming you have a known budget, is which type of material to use to construct the ROPS. There are currently two types of material being used to construct ROPS. The first choice of material is a 1010 grade mild steel CDW (Code Drawn Welded) tube (1020 is a better grade but only available in foreign countries), commonly known as exhaust tubing. The minimum strength of this material is 350MPa (Yield strength) most likely less. If the Roll cage design complies with standard design principles laid out in the FIA regulations using specified tube diameters and wall thicknesses and the cage is welded and installed correctly, it should, in theory, be OK. The second choice of tube is a 4130 Chrome/Molybdenum (Known as Chromoly) tube of around 650MPa yield strength and is a seamless tube. Because these tubes are of a higher strength, clever design will enable the ROPS to be constructed using tubes with a reduced wall thickness. This is where the weight is saved but it must be said that the ROPS design and welding processes of these tubes is more critical. Given the nature of this material it created high stress points very close to a welded joint, and needs to be stress relieved after welding. Which makes sticking a complete body with cage in an oven very difficult and expensive The design or look of a cage normally starts with something along the lines of 4 point or 6 point cages, door bars, main roll hoop, lateral roll hoop ,etc. This refers to how many anchor point there is to our body. The more points we have the better the load is distributed into our body. Gussets in the form of sheet metal or tubing is a easy and cost effective way of dramatically strengthen a structure in

critical areas, at very little cost and weight. In the FIA appendix J (Which will be available for download on my web site) there are very nice illustrations with pictures on good practice ROPS designs. Without doubt the more comprehensive and well designed the cage is, the greater the chance of survival. Roll-cage design ideologies are constantly changing so what you see in S2000 rally cars this year will probably be different next year. It is advised you carefully consider the design as once the cage is constructed it may be very difficult or impossible to change. Follow the link on my site for some DTM touring cars inspiration. (www.e30m3project.com/e30m3performance/tech_articles/cage_symposium) Figure 4 shows a well designed and triangulated frame. Notice gussets in critical areas and virtually no bends! The next step will be welding or bolting. Welding is difficult enough when welding with adequate space, the best machine and thickest material. Welding a tubular roll cage inside a car is not!! If you think you can weld, this is not a place to test your skills. Good penetration around the whole perimeter of the tube is essential. Although good external appearance of a weld does not necessarily guarantee its quality, poor looking welds are never a sign of good workmanship and will be failed immediately upon inspection. That is most likely why bolt in cages are preferred. TIG welding is always the best method of welding material together, especially if one starts using more exotic materials. MIG welding is the most common, although I personally do not prefer it, and there

Figure 4

is the common ARC or Stick welding. If the cage is out sourced, none of this is up to you. When bolting or welding a cage to a body it is important to distribute the load on the floor. Use fairly large plates with a corresponding 3mm plate thickness .If it is bolted cage, fit the cage welded and then mark and drill the holes on the body. Use a minimum of three 8mm bolts. This is covered very intensely in the FIA Appendix J. Other devices such as the seat and seat belts should be located to the roll cage and not the pressed steel floor, if original bolt points are not used. Seat belt angles are important and will point back to the basic vector and path loading. Feeding suspension loads into the roll cage is always a good idea. The power and spring rate far exceed the intended design parameters from back then for a standard body to withstand. Thats why people talk about seam welding, strut braces, chassis strengthen.this is not that critical if a well planed and constructed roll cage has pick up points or nodes leading into the structure. This might cure a lot of funny handling problems! The roll cage is the skeleton of a race car (space frame) and houses all the other components. If the skeleton is weak, the body is weak. I would urge one to look at your own roll cage, not to replace it, but look at the structure from a new point of view and see the importance of the unit. One can get great inspiration from fellow participants vehicles and any other forms of motor sport. Look beyond that at buildings and structure we walk underneath every day. I would like to point out once again that there are many articles on the web and this is merely to start our members to participate in the QUALITY OF THERE OWN CARS!