The following example is going to be a step-by-step process for a hypothetical case of needing to test the wheel cover.

Please note that the wheel covers are not structural, only aerodynamic so they won’t need to take any loads. I just chose it since the wheel cover is a simple enough panel of the aero body to test.

Research:

Below are the wheel covers, there are also two on the other side:

Open

Open

This is the figure that is in the ASC regulations, it outlines which collisions the car must be able to endure for it to be able to compete. As you can possibly note, there are only a select few collisions that hit the location of the wheel cover. They are located in the top view and in the top right of the car.

Since there are only two locations that collide with the wheel covers, I believe that a three-point bend test, that is done in ASTM C393_Standard Test Method for Shear Strength. It will be sufficient for testing of this panel as it emulates a three-point bend test and also gives shear strength properties which as you may be able to see, the 5G collisions that are diagonal can in a way, emulate shear strength.

FEA

Now that the research is complete, we may move on to doing FEA. Since we are going to be doing FEA for ASTM C393, I have already done this in the past and if you’d like to consult it for yourself, it is right here (FEA Simulation for ASTM C393 ). Of course, it isn’t the exact same as the wheel covers have a different panel stack up than the FEA I did but, it will relatively be the same.

Testing Plan

Next, comes the testing plan, I have already sort of did this in the research section but, it also includes listing out some general procedures and equipment we need. Front Bulkhead Testing Plan I know that the link is for the front bulkhead but, if you look at it, you will be able to see what we need for ASTM C393 right there. In the testing plans, I am also aiming to add some more sub-sections such as surface and test specimen preparation and doing the same for fastener testing but just test specimen preparation.

Material Testing

This is the part that I haven’t done yet so I will do my best to explain what we will be doing. All of our material testing is done by Mark Griffet who is a technician in an E3 lab, we contact him for everything we need to be tested. We will bring him our test specimens and he will conduct the test, it’s as simple as that. Afterwards, we will take the data that he will obtain for us and fill out our test reports and interpret the data.

Interpreting the Data

The way we will interpret the data will be by taking our empirical results obtained from material testing and compare that with FEA data. When this is done, we will be hoping that the empirical data is the same as FEA or maybe even better so we have a safety factor on it. If the properties of our panels are worse than the properties of FEA, that means that our manufacturing techniques aren’t sufficient enough.

Conclusion

That is the final step of the “process”. I know that this is quite summarized and there are actually many more details in the whole project but, the purpose of this was just to give a big picture idea. Once you get more involved in the project, you will be able to experience many of these.