FALL 2024 MEETINGS
September 14, 2024
Notes:
Talk to formula or baja
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welded tabs for both front and rear
Teams:
Front: Winters, Michael, Nathan, Josh, Chloe
Rear: unknownRichard, Alex, Kumo, Louie, Max, Nolan, Sam
Tasks:
Spec out Wheels
Spec out Shock
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ETA beginning of DecemberRSU:
Tasks:
Find out distance between bottom of aero body and chassis tube
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Apply loading to nodal and make changes where needed
RSU:
Short meeting, mostly wanted to touch base and get a direction for us to move forward.
Discussed MS15 nodal, investigated how varying parameters such as arm length has an impact on performance
Went over design constraints for MS16
Looked into a good location to place the global system datum: settled on using one of the welded tabs, this might change later but will be locked in soon.
Tasks:
Work on creating a new parametric nodal diagram based on MS15’s RSU. We will make adjustments to this as needed for MS16.
The key is to move the part origin to where we want our system datum to be, i.e. if we want it on the welded tab for the shock, make the origin up there.
Make use of as many equations as possible (make it parametric) so it’s easier to adjust later
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November 21, 2024
Notes:
Space claim meeting to discuss possible changes to wheelbase due to unreleased regulations.
Soft locked more parameters such as ride height, front wheel displacement, space occupancy, and battery pack location.
FSU:
Ride height is set at 110mm with 10mm for a safety factor (there were issues with MSXV because the weight was more than anticipated)
Aero body fabric is roughly 3mm thick and it is in contact with the lower chassis tube; therefore, there is 113mm from bottom of chassis tube to the ground.
Wheel base is extended 0.6m because of the likely possibility that regulations change from MSXV.
More space is claimed for FSU above the top chassis tubing. We claimed all the way up to the top aero body (this is determined by max wheel displacement under compression).
This allows us to likely implement a bell crank system above the top chassis tube.
Tasks:
Continue to work on improving nodal
Nodal has to be changed because of the determined new ride height. This may cause changes in height of the chassis box. To be determined by the weekend.
Pushrod/bell crank nodal continues to be reworked. Once the new geometry for the UCA and LCA are set, the 3 positions of the bell crank can be integrated into the overall nodal. By this time, the shock will be soft locked and MATLAB calculations can begin.
RSU:
Reviewed rough nodal diagram created and discussed path moving forward
Set a fixed assembly origin
RSU team is interested in setting up a meeting for a more focused knowledge transfer
Tasks:
Redo nodal with variables to define arm length, shock angle, etc.
Set up meeting with Jonathan for a more focused knowledge transfer
Create configurations to define stationary, max compression, etc.
WINTER 2025 MEETINGS
FSU
RSU
01/09/2025 MEETING DEBRIEF
Short meeting today, we synced some discussions between mech members regarding potential options for MS16 RSU improvements, highlights of the discussion are listed below:
Optimizing force paths to minimize reaction forces thereby reducing stress
Accounting for increased car mass for MS16 due to increased aerobody size and increased chassis size; this means there is a good chance we CANNOT reuse the same shocks
Our goal as discussed previously is to reuse as much infrastructure as possible from MS15 while still meeting MS16 requirements to minimize our workload
Long story short we gotta haul ass this term. we need the nodal and calculator done asap and it needs to be as parametric as possible to accommodate any changes from other systems. things that will affect us the most are the car's CoG, mass, and chassis design
We need to have some forces asap so we can start speccing out a shock to replace the current RSU shock. Best case, our numbers work out well and we can reuse the FSU shocks.
DELIVERABLES + TASKS
By January 25th, ideally sooner, we should aim to have the following items complete
Fully completed nodal, literally just copy the MS15 RSU nodal but make sure it's as parametric as possible. The main purpose of this is to get something set up that you guys are familiar with and comfortable tweaking before we dive into making changes
Fully functional MATLAB script, we can use Jonathan's spreadsheet to double-check results. MATLAB is much more readable and easier to understand/edit than an excel sheet (sorry Jonathan) so it’s a good idea to get this set up and completed
Anyone not working on those items can do some research on how we can reduce our reaction forces and stress on components
Next Thursday is W25 first general meeting so no dynamics meeting. I'll do a working session next Saturday (18th) where we can grind out some stuff. if you're down to come to the bay, awesome. if not, no worries.