• FSAE Rules: T2, T3, T4

2023 Formula Hybrid+Electric Rules v5.pdf

• Resources
  • https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/news/2019/06/the-suspension-of-a-formula-one-car/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_suspension#Types
  • https://www.formula1-dictionary.net/suspension.html
  • Good definitions: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1631&context=honorstheses
  • Interesting design without push rod and good body roll definitions: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1915&context=honors
  • Camber https://suspensionsecrets.co.uk/camber-2/#:~:text=The dynamic effect of running,the car and reduces understeer.
  • Great cornering definitions: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11049378.pdf
• questions to answer
  • What does suspension do? What does Camber do?
  • What is avg track for fsae car?
    • Smaller track of the vehicle must be no less than 75% of the larger track
  • What is typical suspension architecture?

Research Information

Design Goals

• Tunability - We recognize that hands-on testing will produce a better car than months of theoretical analysis and optimization. It will allow the driver to get more experience behind the wheel and give us insights about how the car actually performs. We will be able to more quickly identify and address modes of failure, while adjusting components and geometry based on real-life conditions.
• Drivability - No one on the team is a professional racing driver, and we don’t think they need to be. We want a car that everyone on the team can enjoy, and anyone, with some practice, can take to the limits of its performance. This may mean exchanging some responsiveness for a more forgiving ride, and prioritizing a predictable performance envelope over a large one.
• Agility - The car should be quick where it needs to be, particularly in low-speed corners. This maneuverability will be supported chiefly by minimizing footprint, turning radius, and weight. Prioritizing a fast and predictable weight transfer, along with a looser rear in corner entry, will further ensure that the car rotates easily into tight turns.

Architecture

Considerations

Tires, as we will discuss, are responsible for communicating force from the asphalt to the car. Because this force is frictious, the force that each tire produces is roughly proportional to the weight on each tire. How the weight is distributed among the tires is called weight distribution.

Although the car is accelerated through the tires, the car can be treated as a point mass at its center of gravity. There is, of course, a distance between where the tires exert a force on a car, and where the center of mass is. A force multiplied by a difference generates a moment, which causes the vehicle to want to rotate around its center of gravity. Of course, the car cannot rotate into the ground, so instead the ground generates a normal force to resist the rotation. It is this normal force that changes the load on each tire as the car accelerates, brakes, and turns. That change in load distribution is called weight transfer.

One of the most important facts in vehicle design is that weight transfer is not dependent on the dynamic elements of a car. That is, the springs and linkages that comprise a suspension system do not affect how the weight shifts as the car brakes, accelerates, and turns. Rather, they depend on a car’s basic architecture, typically defined by its track, wheelbase, weight, and center of gravity location.

Weight transfers in two directions. In lateral acceleration, or turning, the weight shifts to the outside of the car. This is given by the equation: