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AUTOMOTIVE

CHASSIS

By MANMEET SINGH

VEHICLE DEVELOPMENT
ORGANIZATION
Vehicle
Development
Organization

Product
Engineering

Body Engineering
Chassis Engineering
Powertrain Engineering
Climate Control Engineering
Electrical Engineering

Vehicle
Engineering
Package Engineering
Weight Engineering
Safety Engineering
Vehicle Dynamics
Vehicle Durability
Vehicle NVH
Vehicle Thermal&Aero
Prototype Planning/Test

Styling

Exterior Styling
Interior Styling

CLASSIFICATION OF AUTOMOBILE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Capacity (HMV ,LMV)


Power ( Petrol, Diesel, Gas, Electric)
Use (Cars ,Buses ,Trucks ,Motor Cycles )
Wheels (2.3.4.6 .)
Make ( Bajaj, Vespa, Hero, Honda, Maruti)
Drive (LHD, RHD)
Transmission ( Conventional, Automatic)
Purpose (Passenger,Goods)

CHASSIS
Chasis is a French term which denotes the whole
vehicle except body in case of heavy vehicles.
Chassis consists of engine, brakes, steering
system & wheel mounted on the frame,
differential, suspension.
Propel and control a automobile

COMPONENTS OF CHASSIS
Engine
Transmission (Clutch, Gear Box, Propeller shaft,
Differential)
Controls (Braking and Steering)
Basic Structure (frame, Suspensions, Axles,
wheels, tyres)
Electrical systems

REMAINING
Auxiliaries
Superstructure

FUNCTION OF VEHICLE
SYSTEMS

Vehicle System

Function

Body

Provide durable attachment for other major systems


Provide safe and pleasant seating environment for all passengers
Protect passengers from crashes

Chassis

Provide capability to steer the vehicle


Provide capability to brake the vehicle safely
Provide isolation between road and passengers

Powertrain

Provide capability to accelerate the vehicle by transferring torque to wheels


Provide capability to control vehicle speed
Meet regulatory exhaust requirement

Climate Control

Maintain comfortable temperature distribution for passengers


Provide windshield defrost capability

Electrical & Electronics

Provide power supply where needed


Provide desirable entertainment system
Provide functional censors and controls

GENERAL CONSIDERATION
RELATING TO CHASSIS
Body of most vehicle should fulfil the following requirements:
1. The body should be light.
2. It should have minimum number of components.
3. It should provide sufficient space for passengers and
luggage.
4. It should withstand vibrations while in motion.
5. It should offer minimum resistance to air.
6. It should be cheap and easy in manufacturing.
7. It should be attractive in shape and colour.
8. It should have uniformly distributed load.
9. It should have long fatigue life
10.It should provide good vision and ventilation.

Classification Chassis acc to layout


Conventional
Semi-forward
Full-forward

CHASSIS CLASSIFICATION BASED


ON ENGINE LOCATION
Engine fitted at front
Engine fitted at Back
Engine fitted at centre
Engine fitted at front but crosswise

CHASSIS CLASSIFICATION BASED ON

Number of Wheels fitted in the vehicles and the


number of driving wheels
4x2 drive chassis vehicle.
4x4 drive chassis vehicle.
6x2 drive chassis vehicle.
6x4 drive chassis vehicle.

FITTED AT FRONT & DRIVE IS GIVEN TO THE


WHEELS FROM THE REAR
1.
2.
3.

Enough space is available for luggage behind the


rear seat
The weight of vehicles is well balance
Increased efficiency of cooling system

Engine is fitted at front & drive is given to


front wheel
1. Low floor is available.
2. Vehicle has more road holding capacity.
3. clutch , gear box & differential are usually made
as one unit, thereby cost is reduced.

ENGINE IS FITTED IN FRONT BUT


CROSSWISE:
BMC
Maruti

ENGINE FITTED AT THE CENTRE


OF THE CHASSIS:
Drive is given to the rear
As in royal tiger world master buses
This arrangement provide full space of floor for
use

ENGINE FITTED AT BACK


1.
2.
3.
4.

5.

Flat floor is available since long propeller shafts are


eliminated
With elimination of propeller shaft the centre of
gravity lowered giving stable driving
Better adhesion on road specially when climbing
hill.
While Climbing hills proper adhesion may be
affected since the weight of vehicles moves to the
rear , thereby reducing the weight on the front
wheel.
As a result of grouping of the engine with clutch,
gear box and differential, the repair and adjustment
become difficult due to congestion at the rear.

FRAMES

TYPES OF CHASSIS FRAMES:


THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF FRAMES
1. CONVENTIONAL FRAME
2. INTEGRAL FRAME
3. SEMI-INTEGRAL FRAME

CONVENTIONAL FRAME
a.Channel Section - Good resistance to bending
b. Tabular Section - Good resistance to Torsion

c. Box Section - Good resistance to both bending


and Torsion

INTEGRAL FRAME (FRAMELESS)


used now a days in most of the cars
no frame and all the assembly units are attached
to the body
Due to elimination of long frame it is cheaper
Only disadvantage is repairing is difficult.

SEMI - INTEGRAL FRAME


half frame is fixed in the front end on which
engine gear box and front suspension is mounted.
It has the advantage when the vehicle is met
with accident the front frame can be taken easily
to replace the damaged chassis frame.
This type of frame is used in FIAT cars and some
of the European and American cars.

SOME OF IMPORTANT CHASSIS


FRAMES ARE:
Ladder Frame
Tabular Space Frame
Monocoque Frame
Aluminum Space Frame
Carbon Fibre frame

LADDER FRAME:
The ladder frame is the simplest and oldest of all
designs.
This design offers good beam resistance because
of its continuous rails from front to rear
poor resistance to torsion

A type frame

X type frame
High torsional
rigidity

SPRINGING SPACE

TUBULAR SPACE FRAME:


It is 3-dimensional design
Tubular space frame chassis employs dozens of circular,
rectangular etc section tube, positions in different
directions to provide mechanical strength against force
from anywhere.
These tubes are welded & forms a very complex structure.

TUBULAR
ADVANTAGES
Very strong in any direction (compared with
ladder chassis and Monocoque chassis of the
same weight)
DISADVANTAGES
Very complex , costly and time consuming to be
built.

MONOCOQUE

Monocoque is a one-piece structure which defines overall


shape of the car. while ladder , tabular & backbone provide
only stress members
Today 99% car produced in this planet are made of
Monocoque chassis.
Chassis are made by welding of several pieces.(Spot winding).

MONOCOQUE
DISADVANTAGES
1.
It has very complex design .
2. Impossible for small volume production.
ADVANTAGES
3.
Space-efficiency (the whole structure is actually an
outer shell.)
4.
Monocoque chassis benefit crash (reproduction)
production because it uses a lot of metal.
5. Cheap for mass production.

ALUMINIUM MONOCOQUE

Audi A8 is the first mass production car featuring


Aluminium Space Frame chassis.

To replace conventional steel monocoque mainly


for the benefit of lightness.
Audi claimed A8's ASF is 40% lighter yet 40%
stiffer than contemporary steel monocoque.

CARBON-FIBER MONOCOQUE
Carbon Fiber is the most sophisticated material using
in aircrafts, spaceships and racing cars because of its
superior rigidity-to-weight ratio.
Road cars featuring Carbon-Fiber body panels, such
as Ferrari 288GTO and Porsche 959.There are several
Carbon-fibers commonly used in motor industry.

Kevlar,

which was developed by Du Pont, offers the


highest rigidity-to-weight ratio among them. Because
of this, army's helmets are made of Kevlar. Kevlar can
also be found in the body panels of many exotic cars,
although most of them simultaneously use other
kinds of carbon-fiber in even larger amount.

CARBON FIBRE MONOCOQUE


Production process

Carbon-fiber panels are made by growing carbonfiber sheets (something look like textile) in either
side of an aluminium foil.
The foil, which defines the shape of the panel, is
sticked with several layers of carbon fiber sheets
impregnated with resin, then cooked in a big oven
for 3 hours at 120C and 90 psi pressure.
After that, the carbon fiber layers will be melted
and form a uni-formal, rigid body panel

CARBON FIBRE PANELS


Where is the carbon-fiber used ? Body panels or Chassis ?
Since body panels do nothing to provide mechanical strength,
the use of carbon fiber over aluminium can barely save weight.
The stress member remains to be the chassis, which is usually
in heavier and weaker steel tubular frame.

COMPARISON LADDER AND


MONOCOQUE

Performance -
The monocoque is a lighter design which is a plus for fuel efficiency,
It has more torsional stiffness and is by far the better chassis for
performance oriented vehicles.
The heavy nature of the ladder chassis makes it tough and it is much better
than the monocoque for carrying heavy loads and towing heavier objects.
Design -
A unibody bodyshell is difficult to design, build and modify (
platform sharing) when compared to the body on frame but computer aided
design (CAD) makes unibody platform sharing much easier.
For body on frame vehicles its easy to build another body even from another
bodystyle and place it on a ladder chassis as long as they are of similar
dimensions.
Materials -
Unitary bodyshells can be made from a variety of materials steel and steel
alloys,
aluminium and aluminium alloysand
evencarbon fiberor
combinations of these materials whereas ladder chassis are usually built
from steel.

A QUICK COMPARISON

Typical Ladder Frame

Monocoques

VARIOUS LOADS ACTING ON THE


FRAME:
1. Short duration Load - While crossing a broken
patch.
2. Momentary duration Load - While taking a
curve.
3. Impact Loads - Due to the collision of the vehicle.
4. Inertia Load - While applying brakes.
5. Static Loads - Loads due to chassis parts.
6. Over Loads - Beyond Design capacity.

MATERIALS- WHY IMPORTANT


As fuel economy restrictions become tighter,
manufacturers must find new ways to meet them.
This has led them away from using so much steel
in the vehicles, and more and more are moving
towards aluminum.

A BASIC COMPARISON
Two common alloys used in car manufacturing:
For Aluminum: AA 5182
For Steel: AISI 1020

Density of Steel: 7.88 g/cm3


Density of Aluminum: 2.7 g/cm3
Aluminum is about 3 times lighter than steel per unit volume, but can
be made just as strong using certain alloys/shapes/bonding methods.
Because of this, AL parts can be thicker, and thus stronger, than their
steel counterparts, all while weighing less.

Steel

Al

Yield
Strength
(MPa)

294.8

395

UTS (MPa)

394.7

420

Hardness
(HB500)

104

58

THE COST ISSUE


While Al may seem like a miracle metal for car
production, there is a reason not all cars are made
from Al... It costs a lot more than Steel.

THE MOVE TO ALUMINUM


The first production vehicle to move to an Al frame
was the Audi A8 in 1994.
This allowed Audi to make their full-size car lighter
than the competitions (BMW, Mercedes, Lexus...),
thus giving them the edge in performance &
handling.
This comes at a price premium though, for instance
compared to a Lexus LS460 (Steel framed) which
costs around $65,000. The A8 starts at $75,000

Audi A8

Lexus LS460

CARS UTILIZING AL FRAMES


Audi A8
Jaguar XJ
Corvette Z06 (GM)
Honda NSX
Audi A2
Audi R8

SOME OTHER ADVANTAGES...

There are some manufacturing


methods that can only be done with
aluminum, such

extrusions.

as

These extrusions allows the Al Space


Frame to have about half the amount
of parts as a traditional steel
monocoque.
Because of all this, Al is already a
cheaper material to use for low
volume production cars (under
100,000 units a year or so).

IN THE FUTURE

While Aluminum may be the wave of the future for


now, some exotic car companies are already looking
ahead to composite materials.
Take for example Porsche Carrera GT, which used a
completely Carbon-Fiber monocoque construction in
addition to Carbon-Fiber body panels.
Because of this, the curb weight of the car was only
3000 lbs (1360 kg), even with a 5.7L V-10 engine
powering it.

VEHICLE ATTRIBUTES
Vehicle Attributes

Description

Cost

Lowest production, assembly and distribution cost compared to


competitive vehicles

Weight

Lowest curb weight compared to competitive vehicles in its weight


class

Package

Best use of the space to provide comfort and amenities to passengers

Safety

5* crash rating from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard


(FMVSS)

Dynamics

Best ride & handling performance compared to competitive vehicles

Durability

Highest reliability and high mileage durability compared to


competitive vehicles

NVH

Lowest noise, vibration and harshness compared to competitive


vehicles

TYPES OF CARS ON AS PER THEIR DESIGN

1) Sports Cars

Sports cars are the perfect example of best automobile engineering,


sports cars are two-seat small cars that are designed for quick response to
move fast forspirited performance and nimble handling.
Nissan GT-R
Now a days sports cars have become a first choice for every body, therefore
automobile manufacture are making them more fast and more luxury.

Some example of sports car masterpieces are

Nissan GTR,Lamborghini Veneno,Maserati Alfierietc.

2) Muscle Cars

A type of car designed for powerful and high performance automobile


lovers, These cars have powerful engine, mostly V-8 and above with2-door.
Apart form this their performance and their look is muscular and
aggressive.
Some common example areEquss Bass 770,Ford Mustang,Chevrolet
Camaroetc.

3) Sedan type Cars

It is the car type that we found around us every time any where, well sedan is a passenger car
that has two rows of seats and adequate passenger space in the rear compartment for adult
passengers.
In sedan, a four or more people can travel and has a fixed roof that is full-height up to the rear
window with two pillar to join roof and window.

The word sedan is taken from Italian sedia chair in that closed chair one person can sit.

Some common examples arePorsche Panamera,Audi A8etc.

4) SUVs type Cars

A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a estate car mostly available in four


wheel drive to drive on-road or off-road having large passenger
carrying space.
If you wish to further categorize the SUV car they are sub divided in
many type as par their size like Compact SUV, Mid-size SUV, Full
size SUV etc.
Some popular SUVs areBMW X4,Porsche Macan,Maserati Levante
etc.

5) Multi-utility vehicles: MUVs

Usually based on either a mid-sized car or mini-van platform.


Usually two-wheel drive "people movers". They have higher
ceilings, more storage than a sedan, some of the utility of a
SUV with a similar ride,

though from a construction standpoint not as robust.

Great for larger families of 4-5 and comfortable.


In India a good example is theHonda Mobilio

6) HATCH BACKS
Passenger cabin with integrated cargo space.
Generally two rows of seat.

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