Development of Carbon Fibre Wheel Rims for Formula Student Racing Car

Abstract

In order to improve the vehicle performance and improve fuel efficiency, the mass of the vehicle must be reduced. An effective way to do this is to construct the wheels out of a woven carbon fiber composite. In doing so, not only is the overall weight of the vehicle reduced, but rotation inertia and unsprung mass are reduced as well. Several designs were evaluated and one was selected for refinement. The final refined design reduced the weight of the wheel by nearly 50%. The project incorporated the design of wheel rims using CREO and SolidWorks, analysis of rims for safety via ANSYS composite pre-post and simulation software and finally in-house manufacturing of wheel rims with the method called Vacuum bagging technique. The wheel was then fabricated and future plans were made to validate and test the wheel.