Baja SAE
Chassis and Frame
In 2023, I designed the chassis for the Blue Jay Racing 20XT. I was also lead of the frame sub-team which includes the chassis, seat, body panels, floors, covers, and all miscellaneous equipment on the vehicle (fire extinguisher, brake light, etc.)
The chassis was an extremely fun challenge for me - I had the opportunity to work with nearly the entire 30+ person team on integration while also working through complex 3D sketches and weldments in SolidWorks. I leveraged Ansys structural analysis using inertial relief and static analysis to analyze the frame. The result was a chassis approximately 15% smaller and lighter than previous years.
I also formulated a novel manufacturing method for creating holes within tube bends, particularly ones that were not normal to the bend plane. A negative of the tube was 3D printed with dowel pins for locating, and the hole was drilled in a CNC mill.
The other aspects of the sub-team were successful as well, being smaller, lighter, and stronger than ever before.
Drivetrain Engineering
For the 2024 season, I am the drivetrain sub-team lead for Blue Jay Racing.
The 21XT drivetrain is a strong, yet fairly conservative advancement from the 20XT. Under my leadership, we removed the engine mounting plate from the car, reducing hours of extremely valuable machine-time while also lowering the center-of-mass and weight of the car. This has involved massive architectural changes to the entire drivetrain.
Personally, I am developing custom universal joints; a new component to our team.
My custom U-Joints allow for 45+ degrees of misalignment. This extremely large misalignment was the primary reason for developing a custom version, as it allowed us to utilize novel suspension geometry. We previously used U-Joints with less than 35 degrees of misalignment, which significantly limited our options. 3D printed prototypes were used to verify theoretical misalignment.
The U-Joints were analyzed in Ansys using torque data collected from wireless strain gauges. Other nuance was considered in analysis, notably material consdierations (eventually deciding on 4140 hardened to 28-32 HRC for a balance of strength and ductility) and torque multiplication as a result of misalignment.