Composite Rim Design

[Fraser]

General questions regarding Composite Rim Design - trying to feel out opinion on the best FEA program to validate a design for a composite rim for our car. I suppose this is specifically directed at teams with some experience in the matter - 3D composite design, CAD and analysis.

I've already filtered through the recommended readings, and everything on the forum on with the words 'composite', 'carbon' or 'rim', but haven't found much in terms of analysis programs.

Thanks in advance!

[Pico]

You could use ANSYS classical version...

[Fraser]

I'm leery of doing that, seeing as the previous mech eng did the same in 2005, and had nothing but "failure to solve" listed in their report.

Bodes poorly for ours, to say the least.

[Æssahættr]

Many many options. The best program will be the one that someone at your uni has used a lot so you can bother them with your questions when learning the program. I have used the two below:

Altair Hyperworks - They even sponsor FSAE teams. Awesome program that gives you really good control when setting up your model though it can be confusing at first. Also has really good laminate optimisation tools.

Abaqus - More user friendly interface, though more tedious to control your laminate.

Both of these have good tutorials to use when you are learning your way through the program as well.

As an aside, a failure to understand any program will get you a plethora of errors if you are lucky, or a disastrous design error if you aren't. Remember... rubbish in, rubbish out.

[FloWeh]

Plus one for Altair Hyperworks. Although its user interface is a bit wierd. It's perfect when you know what to do. Our structural composite parts are all simulated and optimized with this toolbox. The Altair team is always keen to help if you have any questions about the software.
One of the best things is the direct integration of the optimization tools. as far as I know it does everything you need (e.g. ply stack optimization, patch size). For our composite rims th esimulation was bang on the real thing the first time.

Our monocoque is quite a bit different. FEA and reality have nothing in common. When doing real world tests you find out why. Julien van Campoen (Delft) talked about chassis design at the 2009 Euromold FSG workshop (check the FSG website for slides: FSG > Academy > Workshops) and pointed out that they refined their chassis model over the years to get FEA results that are comparable to the real world.

[Sanyo]

Hello guys,
I would like to ask, if you are sizing the composite rims for the tyre mounting at FEA design . I feel like this is a very concentrated load for the rims.
Do you have any experience in mounting the tyre?

Thanks