Design for X Approach to Optimise a Formula SAE Car

The Università degli Studi di Firenze joined the Formula Student competition (organised by SAE and IMechE) in 2002 competing in Class 3, the following year the first car was ready to compete in Class 1. In order to build this car, an integrated approach was adopted to obtain the best solution in every aspect. The purpose of the design was to optimise the car handling, fulfilling the Formula SAE rules. All the design phases were based on the Design for X approach, with the aim to optimise all the aspects of the Formula SAE project, like performance, design and cost. A Design for Manufacturing approach was added to the FEA to design all the components, like uprights and wheel spindles, in order to simplify the CNC machining. The suspensions layout was defined using a recursive method based on the Multibody Simulation and the components design. Some experimentations were conducted to verify the simulations. The experimental data were used to start the redesign, to improve the performance of the new car that will compete in the 2004 events.