Northwestern Formula Racing

This year, I stepped into the role of Suspension Lead, where I’m recruiting and leading a team of 20+ members, focusing on the design, manufacturing, and testing of all suspension components for the national Formula SAE competition.

My role as Suspension Lead included:

  • Onboarding and mentoring new members to ensure a cohesive and skilled team

  • Developing new suspension kinematics, both front and rear, aimed at maximizing our car’s lateral acceleration during competition driving events

  • Helping in the redesign of key suspension components, including hubs and uprights, leading to driving performance improvements through direct leadership and collaboration.

Front Suspension in Optimum Kinematics

Other Projects:

Suspension Rockers:

  • Designed with generative design and analyzed using Solidworks FEA leading to a reduction in weight of 17% while keeping Factor of Safety above 2.0

  • 3D printed by DMG MORI out of 17-4 stainless steel due to high tensile strength

  • Developed and optimized manufacturing strategy for post-processing 3D printed parts while adhering to precise tolerances

Skills Learned:

  • Design with Solidworks and NX CAD

  • FEA analysis in Ansys and Solidworks

  • CNC manufacturing using Fusion 360 and Siemens NX CAM

  • Hands-on experience designing, testing, and manufacturing parts for automotive application

  • Communicating and collaborating across multiple subteams to ensure integration with projects throughout the car

  • Teamwork and giving design feedback to improve numerous projects

Front Suspension Assembly

Tire Data Fitting in MATLAB

Frame Torsional Stiffness Analysis in Ansys

Chassis Technical Director:

  • Blank sheet redesign of the frame of car to allow for more efficient powertrain packaging with our switch from IC to EV

  • Used Solidworks and Ansys Workbench to design and validate the frame to ensure rules compliance, increased torsional stiffness, and improved packaging

  • Increase the torsional stiffness by over 90% while reducing the weight slightly compared to last year’s frame

  • New design also allowed for improved ergonomics for the driver and resulted in a lower center of gravity height, both of which improve performance in driving events

Front Camber Gain Graph

Frame Skeleton Modeling in Solidworks

Suspension Rockers

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