VFSTR Journal of STEM Vol.
2, No 2 (2016) 2455-2062
Design and Analysis of Chassis in Electric Commuter
Vehicle
Bachina Harishbabu1*, Vidhu Kampurath P2, K. Venkatarao3, Sirisha Adamala4
14 2,3
, Asst. Prof, Professor
1,2,4Department of Applied Engineering, Vignan’s Foundation
for Science, Technology and Research University (VFSTR Univ.
VIGNAN UNIVERSITY), Vadlamudi, Guntur 522 213 Andhra
Pradesh, INDIA.
3Department of Mechanical Engineering, PBR VITS, Kavali,
Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, INDIA.
*Corresponding Author: Tel.: +91-863-234-7700 Ext.: 426 Mobile: +91-8328-508-995
Fax: +91-863-234-7700 E-mail:
[email protected] ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT
Received 13 October 2016 The aim of this study is to design a commercially viable commuter vehicle
Revised 20 November 2016 targeted at the Indian market. The initial idea of this study was to design
a familial electric vehicle and after it was decided to follow the
Accepted 1st December2016
customer’s requirements and needs by making a survey. It was found
Available online 20 December 2016 that the customers tend to travel alone with a sedan or bigger (e.g. SUV,
Touring) vehicle at 85% of their times. In a period where the oil is at its
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT peak level, it became primordial for every driver to find a relatively cheap
way to commute. The answer to the customer’s requests is an electric
two seater vehicle with a targeted price under fifteen lakhs excluding
any governmental grant. An electric solution is also a better approach to
the environmental obligations and depleting oil reserves. In order to
match all customers’ requisites and take part in this “green challenge” a
lot of researches on E.V. powertrain, batteries, light weight materials
and other related technology were done. Then according to the different
researches a new concept of electric vehicle has been designed and
different suppliers have been selected. The technical researches had
included also the design of the vehicle using appropriate software, such
as CATIA, followed by its analysis and optimisation. After having selected
components and suppliers the next part is the validation. For this
purpose, the failure mode and effect analysis was applied. The
contribution of this study on the automotive market can be seen as a
real advantage. In fact during the given period of time it was found that
it is possible to design and produce an electric vehicle for under fifteen
lakhs.
Keywords: Commuter vehicle, automotive market, green energy, CATIA
© 2016 VFSTR Press. All rights reserved 2455-2062| http://dx.doi.org/xx.xxx/xxx.xxx.xxx
24
Harish Babu et al
VFSTR Journal of STEM Vol. 2, No 2 (2016) 2455-2062
INTRODUCTION vehicle. In addition, a commuter vehicle is not a vehicle
which serves to the families. However this vehicle
“For electric car, it is about charging rather than project has to be made in a way that it will be as
subsidies.” (A. Thomason, The Guardian). Knowing that cheap as possible, allowing more customers to afford it.
Anthony Thomason has written for The Guardian, the
grant accorded by the government to the electric vehicle DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF CHASSIS STRUCTURE
has not helped driver to buy an electric car (Bastien,
2011). Is that because of the retail price of electric Monocoque frame is decided to be the structure of
vehicle? This could be the reason. The main weak point chassis because of its low cost, light weight,
of an electric vehicle is non-existence of infrastructure distributing the load evenly, as well as having
such as charging station. Since that time cities have relatively good tightness to prevent corrosion.
started to work over the development of the “Green
CATIA part design and generative structure analysis
Car Park”, including a charging plug, which is
are used in the design-analysis-optimization
reserved for electric vehicles (SIMTECH,1997).
process. Due to the limitation of the time and
From that time it is expected that automotive makers CATIA drawing skill of the team, the 3D model is
will start to develop more electric vehicle and only a solid model with simple cross sections which
slightly decrease the need of oil. As that time has come, can however illustrate the overall structure of the
it was obvious that while starting a design project on a chassis.
new commuter vehicle, the electric solutions will have to
be chosen. In fact this solution has several advantages. Fig. 1 shows the design of the monocoque frame
Although an electric car is a real solution to the global chassis structure. Considering the vehicle is RR
warming problems that the world currently faces, it is a layout and most of the essential components like
relatively cheap way to commute. In fact comparing the
battery, inverter and charger are not in the front
electricity and oil price, it costs approximately 1.0 to
travel 1.6 mile with an electric vehicle when it costs
part, the design of the front structure is relatively
fifty with a petrol vehicle (Heinemann Kemma, simpler than traditional FF layout vehicle but of
2011). course, still meets the requirements of standards
(Fig. 1a). The side structures around the seat area
Nevertheless the price of an electric vehicle is, until now, are significantly reinforced which can protect
more expensive than a petrol car despite the fact that passengers and battery from side crash (Fig. 1b).
government allow subsidies. The main objective of this Although it is a 2-seat vehicle, B pillar is designed in
study was to propose a vehicle corresponding to the real the structure for improving the side, rear and turn
drivers’ needs. In fact analyses have pointed out that for over safety (Fig. 1c).
ninety percent of the distances covered by a vehicle in
a journey are less than ninety kilometres and fifty
percents are shorter than five kilometers. Moreover,
these investigations showed that most commuters tend
to commute alone in their car which carries four or more
seats (Anupam, 2009).
At this point it has been necessary to make a survey in
order to know hoes does look the real tendency of the
drivers and help the present project to be only focussed Fig. 1 3D Model of the Monocoque Frame Chassis
on the customers’ habits and expectations. The results Structure
of the survey have been significant on the choice of the
commuter vehicle type. In fact it has been shown that Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is then used to
potential customers need a small vehicle in order to
analyze the stress and displacement of the
travel less than 100 kilometres daily alone or rarely with
someone else. Therefore, the project in its present
structure on the load of 40,000 N, which is
form is a research and design of an electric two seater about four times as the weight of the vehicle,
form front, rear and side (Fig. 2 is the rear stress
25
Harish Babu et al
VFSTR Journal of STEM Vol. 2, No 2 (2016) 2455-2062
analysis) (Broad and Gilbert, 2009). Need to be
mention that, as the model is not perfectly the
same as the chassis, the results of FEA are also
not exactly right. However, the analysis can still
show the weak areas of the structure which need
to be optimized. For example, Fig. 2 shows that
during rear crash, the stress of connect area of B
pillar and floor is very high. As the result,
components need to be improved to enhance the
safety of this part (Fig. 3b). Fig. 4 Rear Stress Analysis of the Optimized Chassis
3. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS
3.1 Materials for Body Panels
Materials used in the body panels (Fig. 5) has to
possess certain characteristics to meet the industry
challenges like,
• Rationalization of specifications for linear
inventory.
• Improved formability
• Reduced rejection rate.
Fig. 2 Rear Stress Analysis of the Chassis
• Better quality
Base on FEA, the design optimization is done as
3.2 High Strength Low Alloy Steel
Fig. 3 illustrates. Two beams are added in the front
It is chosen in the body panels for improved
part to increase the front crash safety (Fig. 3a).
durability, reliability and weight reduction
The modification in Fig. 3b is for enhance the
capabilities (India Steel Works, 2010). Its properties
safety of both side and rear. The rear part of the
include:
structure is changed a lot (Fig. 3c), because motor,
inverter and charger are placed in the rear which • High yield strength
need to be highly protected. • Toughness
• Fatigue strength
• Improved dent resistance
• Corrosion resistance
Considering the safety standards for the EU the
chassis considered for the vehicle is the Monique
frame chassis. On which the Reaction Injection
Mould (RIM) body panels would be mounted. The
bumpers would be of polypropylene. The materials
are marked on the chassis illustration below:
Fig. 3 Optimization of the Chassis Structure
It can be seen in Fig. 4 clearly that, after the
modification, the max stress under the rear load is
significantly decline from 84.6 MPa to 22.5 MPa.
26
Harish Babu et al
VFSTR Journal of STEM Vol. 2, No 2 (2016) 2455-2062
the use of combination of thicker and high strength
materials at the same part. This will allow us to
place the steel within the part where its
attributes are essential. The main advantages
of tailor blanks are its improved crash performance
and it’s potential to reduce weight in the area
which does not contribute to performance.
Other advantages of tailor blanks are as follows:
• They reduce number of parts which in turn
reduce the number of dies needed for the
Fig. 5 Materials of the Chassis Tailored Blanks part stamping and finally cost associated
with the dies.
Steel is chosen mainly for its recyclability and cost • Similarly, they reduce the number of spot
factors. Care is taken such that it meets the
welds and improve dimensional accuracy
requirements like mass, performance and safety.
due to reduction in assembly steps.
For this purpose, high strength steel, ultra high
• Fully laser welded tailor blanks with
strength steel and tailored blanks are used in order
different grades and thickness of steel are
to reduce weight and improve performance.
employed.
3.3 High Strength Steel (HSS)
3.5 Material Manufacturing Process
It is used for most of the body structure. The
3.5.1 Prerequisites for Stamping Process
properties of high strength steel as follows (Davies,
• Formability/ductility of strip steels is basic
2003):
requirements.
• Yield strength : 275 - 550 MPa
• Strain hardening exponent (n–value)
• Elongation : 12 - 24%
improves dent resistance.
• Elastic modulus : same as mild steel
• Minimal spring back and high shape fix
• Sheet thickness reductions : 15 - 30%
ability are essential to maintain the
shape after forming operation.
Material thickness range from 0.65-2 mm
• Weldability of the material
(MATBASE, 2009). HSS are used where the design
• Good adhesion of various combinations of
requires certain crash and strength characteristics.
primers and paints used on auto body to
Different grades of steel which are considered are
obtain high quality paint finishes.
bake hardenable steels, isotropic steels, high
• Outer panels which require deep drawings
strength interestial free steels, transformation
are fenders, hoods etc.
induced plasticity steels, dual phase steels. The
limitation of using HSS is that the HSS stampings
3.6 Stamping Process
have greater spring back and requires different
Stamping operation converts coils of steel obtained
drag angles and so, different grades should be
from steel mill in two parts (Fig. 6). The parts are
treated as a unique material.
assembled with other stampings by welding,
bonding or mechanical fasting (Automotive Steel
3.4 Ultra High Strength Steel (UHSS)
Design Manual, 1996).
They have yield strength higher than 550 MPa (CD-
Adapco, 2009). It is used for most of the bottom
portion of the body.
Tailored blanks promote smooth load flow which
will reduce structural discontinuities and it enables
27
Harish Babu et al
VFSTR Journal of STEM Vol. 2, No 2 (2016) 2455-2062
• Transfer and progressive presses compatible
• More flexible for different model use
5. DISADVANTAGES
• Requires more component part handling
• Requires more difficult and costly
assembly & fabrication operations (labor
cost)
• Wind noise and water leak potential
• Possible material scheduling problems
• Dimensional stack up problems
• More checking fixtures are require
Fig. 6 Body Stamping Process (Jayant Trewn, 2011)
6. CONCLUSION
The design, analysis of chassis in electrical
It is used to make panels depending on its design. It
commuter vehicle, and the chassis prototype of
involves the following processes.
the vehicle are simple and it can be tested with
various circumstances and it can be used for the
Blanking: Prepares initial approximate form of part
future commuter vehicle.
in flat sheet.
Drawing: It is the first operation to attain depth
[1] Langer, R.; Tirrell, D. A. Designing Materials for
related form.
Piercing, forming and notching: They are product Biology and Medicine. Nature 2004, 428, 487–
492.
design related operation.
Trimming: This operation removes extra material
References
on the periphery of the panel provided for blank
[2] Anupam. Eco Rides: STEM electric urban
holding during the draw operation. Good draw
commuter bike seems inspired by a tractor.
depends on the decisions on the trimming
operations (Indra, 2011) 2009, [online] available from <
http://www.ecofriend.com/eco-rides-stem-
Stamping can be done as single or multi piece electric-urban-commuter-bike-seems-
stamping. Multi piece stamping is performed in this inspired-by-a-tractor.html> [14 April 2017]
project for the advantages it holds. [3] Bastien, C. Vehicle structure. Unpublished
lecture notes. Coventry: Coventry University,
4. ADVANTAGES 2011.
• Individual stampings are easier to form [4] Broad, M.; Gilbert, T. Design Development and
• Reduces tooling lead time required for Analysis of the NCSHFH.09 Chassis. North
restyling Carolina State University, SAE technical
• Detail stamping dimensional quality easier paper, 2009.
to control [5] Peric, M; Ferguson, S. Press Room - The
• Material savings potential Advantage of Polyhedral Meshes. CD-Adapco,
• Engineering changes are easier to 2009.
implement [6] Davies, G. Materials for Automobile Bodies.
• Sheet metal press flexibility Maryland Heights: Butterworth, 2003.
• Smaller press/less tonnage required [7] Heinemann Kemma, A. J. Design of a tubular
Smaller/lighter part handling equipment space frame for a formula Race Car. 2011.
required [8] India Steel Works. Steel rolling mills machinery.
2010.
28
Harish Babu et al
VFSTR Journal of STEM Vol. 2, No 2 (2016) 2455-2062
[9] Indra. Indra’s Drishtikona [online] available Processes. in. ed. by SimTech Simulation et
from <www.drishtikona.com> [17 May 2011], Technologie. 1999.
2011. [12] MATBASE (2009) [online] available from
[10] Jayant Trewn. Principal Component Analysis <http://www.matbase.com/material/ferrous-
Case Studies. 2011. metals/high-grade-steel/c60/properties> [27
[11] SIMTECH 37 rue des Acacias, 75017 Paris feb2017]
France. Introduction to Sheet Metal Forming
29
Harish Babu et al
