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| Tbe USD Basic Utility Vehicle Group, and their Project (Left to Right: Ben Methakul, Ian Mahaney, Byron Riemhofer(top), Emilio Mejia(bottom), Andrew Wood, Luke Daenitz) May 2013, University of San Diego |
Below is a side to side of the final computer aided design model, and the final product. Our model became our blueprint, and each part was fabricated, and assembled to its specifications.
This is the final product, but it started out as an idea. In our first week we started out with sketches...
The basic idea was simple, but still changed over time. We contemplated having a detachable back, two wheels in front, the driver in the back, but each one had economical, practical, or user interface problems. We had to make decisions early on that, at the time, we really were not sure if they would work out. It was a lot to handle so we did a lot to break it down and tackle everything in stride. One thing we did was a Functional Decomposition.
We took what we knew, stuck to our reasoning, and ran with out idea. We began modeling and some basic, but important functional analysis.
Through a lot of research, we finally had our model. Then came the CAD analysis of the model. Individual analysis was done on different sections of concern (such as the front, and struts for the rear axle), as well as a maximum load under a 3g bump. Our design changed many times because of this analysis, especially the rear axle strut, the front L axle connection and the roll bar stress distribution. Here is the final analysis of our design. With this, our production design, we fell well within a safety factor of 2, and determined that failure would not occur in the chassis.
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| Deformation is emphasized by a factor of 10^7 |
That is all I have for the blog right now. We only had one thing go wrong when we built the little truck. Funny story actually, managed to get it all sorted out. To hear that one though, you'll have to contact me. Cheers!
-Ian
