Quad Bike
Design and Manufacturing of Quad Bike.
The aim of the project was to design and manufacture a Quad Bike according to the rules of a national level competition - Quad TORC.
I served as the Team Captain and Lead Chassis Designer.
The key objective was to design a rigid and torsion free chassis. While designing the main frame of the quad bike, challenge was to keep it lightweight with no compromise to the functionality and safety of the driver.
For designing a safe, performance vehicle, the sub-systems including suspension, steering and transmission systems need to be well mounted. The mounting points were strategically designed and positioned for proper force distribution and lesser stress concentration.
Material selection was based on the strength, weld-ability and availability. Out of the three shortlisted materials, AISI 1018 was used for final manufacturing.
Designed experiments to iterate and improve design based on test performance at crash test, static rupture and fatigue at mounting points and modal analysis of the structure. Finite Element Analysis using ANSYS was used to test the structural and modal strength of the frame for varying load in different scenarios. Hand calculations were used to assist the decision making.
The final chassis had 18% reduced weight than the initial with no reduction in its functional ability and manufacturability.
I worked on the steering system and some parts of suspension system as well. I designed the steering knuckle. For a all terrain vehicle suspension geometry is one of the most important sub-systems. Since the load from the wheels directly impact the ball joints of the knuckle and wheel assembly, the design need to have an optimum ball joint angle.
Hand calculations based on scrub radius and suspension mounting points derived the best compromised ball joint angle equal to 9 degree.
Designed lightweight brake caliper mount and pitman arm for easier manufacturing.
Performed static structural analysis using ANSYS to test failure due to load transfer during acceleration and braking.
Manufactured the parts in workshop and assembled the bike.
Also designed and constructed jigs & fixtures to hold and weld the parts.
Prepared Design reports, Design Validation Plan, FMEA, Gantt Chart and Cost Report of the Vehicle