Design and Development of Single Seat, Four Wheeled All-Terrain Vehicle for Baja Collegiate Design Series 2015-01-2863

There has been a rapid increase in popularity of multipurpose All-terrain vehicles (ATV) across the globe over the past few years. SAE BAJA event gives student-community an opportunity to delve deeper into the nitty-gritty of designing a single seat, four-wheeled off road vehicle. The design and development methodology presented in this paper is useful in conceptualization of an ATV for SAE BAJA event. The vehicle is divided into various subsystems including chassis, suspension, drive train, steering, and braking system. Further these subsystems are designed and comprehensively analyzed in software like SolidWorks, ANSYS, WINGEO and MS-Excel.

The 3-D model of roll cage is designed in SolidWorks and analyzed in ANSYS 9.0 for front, rear and side impact along with front and side roll-over conditions. Special case of wheel bump is also analyzed. Weight, wall thickness and bending strength of tubing used for roll cage are comprehensively studied. Suspension geometry is optimized using WINGEO software by performing ride, roll and steer iterations. FEA of suspension parts is done in SolidWorks. Special case of bump-steer is also taken into consideration. Two front and single central rear disc brake is proposed to reduce the un-sprung mass, and also for better packaging. FEA of brake disc is performed in CosmosWorks. Chain-Sprocket system in conjunction with a CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) is used. Centre distance and angle of lap are optimized for reduced overall size of drive train for better vehicle dynamics.

The vehicle is designed ergonomically to maximize driver efficiency. Complete isolation of driver cockpit, position of steering wheel, egress/ingress dynamics are considered for optimized design. DFMEA of sub-assemblies and components is also undertaken in order to aid design validation.

The design of vehicle subsystems is further detailed in the following paper.