Every single mechanical engineer has to study a subject called mechanics. Some call it MOM, some call it SOM, some call it EM. But whatever you may call it, it's always there and it's always the same. This subject tells us how to decide whether our design will fail or not. And it is a very complex subject. And the bad news is, we only study this until we get familiar with the concept of Simulation. Once you start doing simulations, there is no going back. I had a glimpse of simulation very early in my college life, way before it would have according to my syllabus. And then I got myself involved in another project that made me understand simulation to a very great extend. This was the design and manufacturing of HAWT. Basically, we were trying to make a hybrid wind turbine that can produce electricity safely inside a crowded city. And the very first step included the Fluent based simulations. Actually, the first step was a literature review, but yeah you got the point. So, my s...
First of all, Formula Student can't be called a personal project. It was rather a team project where I was in charge of designing the car. As a team of twenty, we worked for over eight months to come up with this vehicle. And believe me, it took more effort than any of us had expected. To start with, it was the first time our college was making a Formula Student, so we had no guidance. Although we had a team for BAJA India, the last few years were not going good for our teams. So we had a bit of experience, but that too with an All-Terrain Vehicle.
I was the head of designing for the Formula Student. And I had to read the rule book at least three to four times and design a chassis at least ten times to come up with a design that looked fairly good. It took us (me and my team) five months and nearly 97 iterations to come up with the final design. Yeah, you read it right. I had to make the roll cage up from scratch tens of times. Then each of these was modified to ensure no rule is being broken, the weight is minimum, and the chassis is strong enough. Thousands of hours of designing and Hundreds of hours of Simulation gave us our final design.
Image: Rendered Vehicle (Complete Assembly) on Fusion 360.
And believe me, this was not the best design. This was not the lightest or the strongest design. But being a first-time participant I'll say it was pretty decent. Being the head of design doesn't mean you have to only design the chassis, rather we had to ensure it's manufacturability, then we had to work with every other department to ensure every single part fits in our roll cage. We had to decide which material to use, which welding technique to use, how to cut every individual pipe at different angles so that they can be welded, and whatnot. I'll be posting a DIY article soon, that will tell every single step in detail. Here, I just want to give an overview. This project helped me learn every single thing I know about CAD, Simulations, and Manufacturing. I have always recommended everyone to participate in any one of these events.
The knowledge I gained here was far more than what I had gained by my whole college syllabus. So, If you are going to pursue Mechanical Engineering this is something you must try, even if you are not interested. And for every engineer out there having the slightest interest in cars: Do participate in any one of these competitions.
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