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NYU's Motorsports Design Team
Suspension and Drivetrain Engineer
September 2024 - Present
NYU Motorsports FSAE is the motorsports design team that participates in the Formula SAE electric competition. As part of the suspension subteam, I worked with a team of 3 students to design and manufacture suspension components for the car. I was involved with the calculation of design parameters, research, welding, and lathing.
Suspension Tab Waterjetting
Suspension Tab Waterjetting
Intersecting tabs with the tubes
The tabs on the body of the car served as a connection point for control rods in suspension. I've conducted verifications with the CAD to ensure that the downloaded DXFs were prepared for water jetting and fit accurately to the body tubes of the car. I intersected the tab with the body tubes to delete intersecting parts. Since the tabs had uneven areas on the top and bottom sides, the one with a smaller area was taken as the correct profile. Since having an extra gap makes it ideal for the creation of weld joints, the smaller profile is ideal for waterjetting. All of the DXF files were downloaded and combined.
A problem I noticed regarding the manufacturing was the ambiguity regarding the labeling of the tabs. Since the tabs are generally the same shape with minuscule dimensional differences, I decided to create a labeling system that was easy to identify, short, and readable for everyone on the team. The guide can be seen on the right. It identifies each tab with 5 pieces of information. By using the labeling guide, the suspension team and the manufacturing team were able to successfully identify each suspension tabs with no mixups. This resulted in no material waste due to re-cuts and reduced welding times by organizing tabs more effectively.
In order to reduce metal waste, I manually nested all of the tabs to cut. When initially imported, the total cutting area was around 9.8 in x 10 in. By manually nesting, I was able to reduce the cutting area to 7.7 in x 7.7 in.
After the combined DXF was exported, a PDF document with all of the tabs labeled according to my guideline was created and sent.
After working with the manufacturing team, I was able to operate the waterjet to cut out the DXFs. I manually placed the micro-joints to avoid fragile areas such as the thin connection point with the tubes. This resulted in successful waterjetting of the tabs with no failed parts.
Design Parameter Calculation Program
Design Parameter Calculation Program
To design a Formula vehicle, we first needed to determine key parameters and obtain values for them in order to maximize desired factors such as stability, top speed, acceleration, energy efficiency, etc. As part of the suspension team, we had to consider various factors regarding the suspension geometry, the main three being camber, caster, and toe. I created a program in MATLAB to determine these factors with our target weight, size, and height of the car. For instance, I created the simple MATLAB program below to calculate the vehicle's optimal center of gravity height. This allowed the team to have a dynamic way of interacting with the parameters of the car. It also ensured the required calculations were done correctly, eliminating the risk of making a mistake.
Program used to determine the optimal center of gravity height
Other Works
Other Works
As of right now, our team is working on bending metal beams and welding them according to our CAD design. I was responsible for finding appropriate shock absorbers that have the appropriate lengths and pounds per inch necessary for the vehicle. I'm responsible for maintaining the shocks, adjusting their pre-load length, and adjusting the rebound and compression values. The shocks being used are Ohlins TTX 25s. I've also contributed to the CAD design of the vehicle by verifying that the sizes of the tubes bought are reflected in the design. I've also marked the tubes at joints to prepare them for welding. This made it much easier for the team to manufacture and assemble the car. It also made sure that the manufacturing was done correctly and accurately, which is crucial since welded parts cannot be undone.
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