Frame
Project Design
Conceptual Designs
Technical Analysis
The official 2018 Baja SAE Competition Rules state: "The purpose of the roll cage is to maintain a minimum space surrounding the driver. The cage must be designed and fabricated to prevent any failure of the cage's integrity during normal operation or during a collision or roll over."
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The roll cage must adhere to specific rules outlined in the official rule book. One important rule to understand is the material constraint. A circular steel tube of outside diameter of 1.0" and wall thickness of 0.120" is specified as the standard. Tubing of different geometry and material are permitted as long as the wall thickness is at least 0.062" and the material consists of at least a 0.18% carbon content. The team decided to create a calculator to determined the lightest possible tube to use for all primary members, utilizing bending strength calculations.
With the roll cage tube geometry calculated, the team moved forward with design a solid CAD model in Solidworks. The rule book was used heavily throughout the process, as there are many different requirements that each member must adhere to. Following these rules, and keeping system integration with suspension, steering, and powertrain systems in mind - the following model was generated.
In order to ensure driver safety, the frame must be analyzed under several circumstances that may be encountered during competition. The team used Solidworks Simulation to simulate front-end impact, side impact, rollover impact, and torsion.
Front-end Impact (1400 lbf)
Rollover Impact (1400 lbf)
