Design Phase Completed

With a lot of hard work and determination the team has completed the assembly of the car in Solidworks and is entering into the manufacturing stage. There has been a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into the project so far, well, maybe not any tears. We are continuing to work hard even after classes have ended and finals are finished. Work will continue over most of the break to achieve our goal of having the car constructed and running by March 1. We found the design phase to be challenging and rewarding, we expect the manufacturing phase to be no different.

Drivetrain Team Update - Knuckles

The drivetrain team set out with many challenges and goals this year. The designing of the knuckles were done from scratch due to re-designing of the suspension system. This was a challenging but fun task. It required working closely with the suspension, brake and hub design team members. The design went through many iterations until the final design was reached. Finite Element Analysis was performed on the knuckles using Algor. The factor of safety of the front knuckle is 2.6 and weighs approximately 2.4 pounds.

Front Knuckle Design

Rear Knuckle Design

Front Knuckle, Hub, and Brake Assembly

- Brian Blocher

Brakes

The design of the rotors was not a quick or easy job. There were many factors that had to be looked into for the design such as the weight of the car that the brakes needed to stop, the size of the wheels that the rotors were to be packaged in, the manufacturability of the assembly, the size of the calipers, and the hydraulic pressure in the lines required to lock all the wheels just to name a few. We went through multiple iterartions to finalize the design we have now. The final design includes four outboard disc brakes and incorporates the use of a top hat with a floating rotor. They are shown in the figures below.

- Ben Beall

Front Rotor

Top Hat

The rotors float on the top hat through the use of the floating rotor buttons. These buttons are wider than the thickness of the rotor and top hat, so the rotors can shift a few hundredths of an inch on the top hat in order to stay centered in the calipers. Once we designed everything that we wanted for the disc brakes, we put them together in an assembly in SolidWorks.

Rear Brake Assembly

Once we had created an assembly, we were able to put the model into ALGOR to simulate the stresses the rotor would see. This allowed us find the factor of safety for the disc brake and make design changes based off how big or small the safety factor was.

Model of Rear Floating Rotor Assembly in ALGOR

Engine Team Update

Engine team has finished its design of the intake and exhaust systems. The team utilized the WAVE software package to design the systems. Using knowledge from the classroom, a SAE video seminar, and lots of advice and mentoring from Cedarville grads, the team was able to accurately analyze the performance of the engine with different intake runner and exhaust header lengths. The results were encouraging! Based upon the model, the motor will make good, smooth, and sustained torque in the mid to high engine speed range.

One current project is modifying the existing oil pan. A new base will be machined from aluminum sheet metal and welded to the stock oil pan, thereby shortening the height of the pan. The engine was picked up and dropped off at the shop last week, and the new Haltech Sport 1000 ECU was just delivered today. The team has done some minor prep work on the engine and is excited to get it running on the dynamometer for tuning. Check back in a few weeks for pictures of the custom-made intake, exhaust, and radiator!

- Scott Bardakjy

WAVE model of 2008 Suzuki GSX-R600 engine.

Comparison of torque figures vs. previous cars.

Comparison of power numbers vs. previous cars.

Removing stock exhaust system.

Cutting out pieces for the oil pan on the band saw.

Suspension Points

The suspension team just met a BIG deadline Monday, nailing down the A-arm attachment points to the chassis and uprights. This was the first big bottleneck of our project. The drive train team can now design the uprights around the upright attachment points and the frame and body team can design around the chassis attachment points. We used the commercial supension design software package OptimumK to design the A-arm geometry. The program allows a suspension system to be easily designed and then analyzed by subjecting it to roll, pitch, heave, and steering.  We're pretty excited about the momentum we have so far as a team, and hope that it continues to build!

- Andrew Biehl

A-arm geometry modeled in OptimumK

A Day at the Races

On Sunday, myself and 6 other members of our team spent the day at Kil-Kare Speedway autocrossing. The day started out wet and for some of the guys it was their first time out at the track so the times were slow at first but once the sun came out everyone dropped almost 10 seconds from their first run. Dustin Winchester posted the fastest time between us while driving Mr. K’s Mazda Miata with 52.8 seconds.

Not only did we drive but a few of the guys took ride alongs with some of the top finishers of the day. It was a blood pumping trip to say the least. All in all we learned a lot, had ton of fun, and made some friends.

- Wes Muntz

 Ben Beall and Jon Pyles waiting in the grid before their first run.

 

Jon going hard into the corner.

 Dustin staying focused.

 

Dustin tearing it up on the track.

 

Nick Duncan being awesome.

Nick out on the course while Ben waits for his turn.

'10 Car Color

The 2010 car color has been decided upon! This year we will be going with a laser blue body with a black frame. Pictures from Lotus are shown below to give you an idea of what the color scheme will look like.

In other news, this past Sunday 7 members of our team went out to Kil-Kare Raceway to get some driving practice in. Pictures of that will be coming soon.

-Wes Muntz

Intro to Jackets Racing

A quick overview of Jackets Racing and what we do:

Jackets Racing is now in its sixth year of attending Formula SAE events. FSAE is a student design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The objective of the competition is to develop a prototype race car that can be marketed to a weekend autocross racer. Each team designs, builds, and tests a prototype. The cars then compete at competition in both dynamic and static events.

The car must first pass a rigorous technical inspection at which it is checked for compliance with the rules. Next, the car is judged on its marketability and the quality of its engineering design in the business and design presentations. A cost report detailing the price of each component of the car is also submitted and judged. The team then participates in four dynamic events. The acceleration and skid-pad events test the raw acceleration and cornering capabilities of the car. The autocross course is comprised of slaloms, hairpin turns, and small straights, and so tests the agility of the car. The twenty-two kilometer long endurance event tests the manufacturing quality and stamina of the car.

- Wes Muntz

Here are some pictures of our team and our cars:

07-08 Car

08-09 Car

Scott Bardakjy driving the Miata during the Autocross at Kil-Kare Raceway

Dustin Winchester driving the 09 Car in an Autocross at Kil-Kare Raceway

Scott Bardakjy doing Skidpad Testing