Investigations on Computational Meshing Techniques of FSAE Space Frame Chassis

The FSAE is a world-renowned competition, in which students from across the globe compete against each other. The chassis is the main framework of the car, which is inherently responsible for accommodating all the components. The chassis is broadly classified into two types—monocoque and spaceframe. The FSAE chassis is of spaceframe type. The chassis also provides structural rigidity to the body of the car. It was observed through literature study that very minimal amount of research has been done on analyzing and validating the chassis by applying the different meshing techniques, namely 1D, 2D, and 3D. The mesh quality is very essential to obtain precise results and hence, effective methods for creating the mesh have been dealt with in this article. This study is on new investigations on different meshing techniques that can be implemented on an FSAE chassis. The main objective is to analyze the chassis using three different meshing techniques—1D, 2D, and 3D to compare their prediction. The way to perform the meshing changes with respect to the type of meshing to be performed. The procedure for analyzing the chassis is presented in detail and the best method applicable for a chassis is deduced based on simulation and experimentation. The analytical value of vertical bending stiffness was found for three different meshing techniques and was compared to the experimental value. The torsional stiffness was evaluated analytically for the three different meshing techniques and was compared with the experimental value of torsional stiffness of the chassis. An attempt was made to study the three different techniques of meshing on the chassis and check for their validity by comparing it with torsional stiffness and vertical bending stiffness obtained experimentally.