DESIGN AND FABRICATION AN ELECTRIC BUGGY FRAME

MOHD YAZID S HAMID

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Universiti Malaysia Pahang

NOVEMBER 2007

P.PP1jSTA<ApN
UNIVEIR,31TI MALAYSIA RHAfl3
No. PorokThan No Panggil
037929.
Tarikh

2099
 V

ABSTRACT

Due to the large area of University Malaysia of Pahang factories especially

the factory of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, a problem arises that it takes quite
a lot one's energy and time to move around the compound and also to carry or
transporting small to medium-sized things that can be carried by a person. To
encounter this problem, a small buggy frame will be build. This frame will acts as a
foundation to the buggy that will be build for the purpose of carrying burden and
load within the compound of University Malaysia Pahang factory. The buggy will
be design to transport 2 persons in one time. In this project, there are three stages of
development will be done which are designing the electric buggy frame by using
CAD software, analyzing the stress distribution on the frame when the load is
applied and fabricating the frame
 A

ABSTRAK

Oleh kerana keluasan kawasan University Malaysia Pahang terutamanya

keluasan kawasan makmal Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal yang terlalu besar,
timbulnya satu masalah iaitu ia memakan banyak tenaga dan masa untuk bergerak di
sekitar kawasan tersebut sambil membawa barang-barang dengan saiz yang
sederhana. Ubtuk mengatasi masalah mi, sebuah rangka kecil 'buggy' akan dibina.
Rangka mi akan menjadi asas kepada 'buggy' tersebut bagi tujuan mengangkat
beban dan barang disekitar makinal Universiti Malaysia Pahang. 'Buggy' tersebut
akan direka untuk mengangkat 2 orang serentak. Didalam projek mi, terdapat tiga
tahap dimana yang pertama mereka rangka tersebut dengan menggunakan perisian
CAD, menganalisa tekanan keatas rangka tersebut dan fabrikasi.
 vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENT TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION 11
DEDICATION ill
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT
V
ABSTRAK vi
LIST OF FIGURES X
LIST OF TABLES Xli
LIST OF APPENDICES XII!

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Project Background 1
1.2 Objectives 2
1.3 Scopes of Work 2

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 History and Overview of Vehicle Structure Types 3
2.1.1 Grillage Frame 4
2.1.2 Backbone Structure 5
2.1.3 Triangulated Tube Structure 6
2.1.4 Incorporation of Roll Cage into Structure 7
2.1.5 Pure Monoque 7
2.1.6 Punt or Platform Structure 8
2.1.7 Perimeter Space Frame or Birdcage Frame 9
2.1.8 Integral or Unitary Body Structure io
2.2 Computer modeling 10
2.2.1 Solid Model 10
 viii

2.2.2 Finite Element Analysis 11

2.3 Chassis Design 12
2.3.1 Passenger Accommodation 12
2.3.2 Material for Fabrications 12
2.3.2.1 Square Frame Rails 13
2.4 Structural Integrity 14
2.4.1 Stiffness 14
2.4.1.1 Torsional Stiffness 14
2.4.1.2 Bending Stiffness 14
2.4.2 Mid Span Bending 15
2.4.3 Load Distribution 15
2.4.4 Strength 15
2.5 Fabricating Technique 16
2.5.1 Shielded Metal-Arc Welding (SMAW) 16
2.5.2 Gas Metal-Arc Welding (MIG) 18
2.5.3 Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) 20

3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction 22
3. 1.1 Flow Process 23
3.2 Preliminary Design 23
3.3 Detail Design 24
3.4 Analyze 24
3.5 Fabrication 24
3.6 Evaluation 25

4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Final Design 26
4.2 Analysis 27
4.3 Finished Design 30
4.4 Testing the Frame 32
 ix

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion 34
5.2 Recommendation 34

REFERENCES 35

Appendix A - Electric Buggy Frame 36

Appendix B - Technical Drawing 38
Appendix C - Analysis Results 42
 x

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE DESCRIPTION PAGE

1 Open section ladder frame chassis of the l92Os 3

2 Grillage structure 5
3 Sheet steel backbone chassis of Lotus car 6
4 Backbone chassis made of triangulated tubes 6
5 Triangulated sports car structure with integrated roll cage 7
6 Monocoque structure 8
7 Punt chassis 9
8 Perimeter space frame 9
9 Integral body structure 10
10 Schematic illustration of the shielded metal-arc
welding process 17
11 Schematic illustration of the shielded metal-arc
welding operation 17
12 Schematic illustration of the gas metal arc
welding process 19
13 Basic equipment used in gas metal arc
welding operation 19
14 Gas tungsten arc welding process 20
15 Equipment for gas tungsten arc welding operations 20
16 Flow process of methodology 23
17 Final design of electric buggy car 27
18 Flow of the analysis process 28
19 Isometric view of stress distribution on the electric
buggy frame 29
20 Fabricated electric buggy frame 32
 xi

21 Testing the frame with two people with average weight 33

20 Front view of the fabricated frame 37
21 Isometric view of the fabricated frame 37
22 Side view of fabricated frame 38
23 Rear view of fabricated frame 38
24 Isometric view of electric buggy frame 39
25 Detail drawing of main base for electric buggy frame 40
26 Detail drawing of front part for electric buggy frame 41
27 Detail drawing of rear part for electric buggy frame 42
 xli

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE DESCRIPTION PAGE

1 General characteristics of welding process 21

2 Properties of plain carbon steel 28
3 Stress analysis result 30
4 Bill of Material 30
 xli'

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX DESCRIPTION PAGE

A Electric Buggy Frame 36

B Technical drawing 38
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Project

The area of University of Pahang factories compound are quite large

especially for the factory of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Due to this size, a
problem arises that it takes quite a lot one's energy and time to move around the
compound and also to carry or transporting small to medium-sized things that can be
carried by a person.

By looking on the transporting system used in most of golf courses and some
of large industries, comes an idea of using a buggy as a transport to reduce this
problem. A buggy is a small light weight vehicle that has been developed for the
purpose of carrying load, burden and also transporting people.

In this project, a small buggy frame will be build. This frame will acts as a
foundation to the buggy that will be build for the purpose of carrying burden and

load within the compound of University Malaysia Pahang factory or indoor used.
This buggy will be design to transport 2 persons in one time and it also will use
electric motor instead of conventional engine. This also satisfied its objective which
this buggy will be used within the University Malaysia Pahang compound and for
indoor used because there are no pollution if electric motor is used.

By considering these needs, the frame for this buggy has to be designed to
Perfectly fit with all the parts and components that will be used like electric motor,
 2

electronic controller, brakes and etc. This frame also has to be designed to
withstand the load from all the parts, the passengers and burden it carries.

1.2 Objective

The objectives for this project are:

To design an electric buggy frame

ii. To analyze the stress distribution on an electric buggy frame
iii. To fabricate an electric buggy frame

1.3 Scopes of Project

The scope for this project consists of-

i. Design a two seater electric buggy car frame.

ii. Analyzing the frame stress distribution by using Finite Element Analysis
software.
iii. Test the frame with the weight of two average people.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 History and Overview of Vehicle Structure Types

Many different structures of cars have been used since the invention cars over
the years. In the 1920s, the standard car configuration was the separate 'body-on-
chassis'. The chassis frame was perfectly suited for mounting the semi-elliptic
spring on the beam axle suspensions system. The structure of the car which is the
underfloor chassis frame consisted of a more or less flat 'ladder frame' like as shown
in Figure 1. Two open side frame with' the full length of the vehicle is connected
with the frame by open section cross-members and riveted at 90' joints.

Figure 1: Open section ladder frame chassis of the l92Os [1].

 4

2.1.1 Grillage Frame

The previous explanation is belongs to a class of structures called 'grillages'

A grillage is a flat structure which the loads is normal to its frame. The internal
loads in the frame are:

L Bending about the in-plane lateral axis of the member.

ii. Torsion about the longitudinal axis of the member in the plane of the frame.
iii. Shear force in a direction normal to the plane of the frame.

This chassis frames, are particularly flexible locally in torsion. But the
transferred bending moments from the ends of members into torsion in the attached
members are poor due to the riveted T-joints. Thus, the chassis frames had very low
torsion stiffness and because of the importance of torsion, the situation is not very
satisfactory. The depth of the structure was limited to a shallow frame underneath
the body, so that the bending stiffness was also relatively low. Good torsional design
is important to prevent the incapability between body and frame and the torsion
stiffness is often used as one of the benchmarks of the structural competence of a
vehicle structure. In the, case of a flexible body on a flexible body on a relatively
stiff chassis frame, most of the torsion load would pass through the chassis and if the
body were stiff and the chassis flexible, then the body would carry a larger
proportion of the torsional load. The major grillage member in the passenger
compartment floor consists principally of 'transmission tunnel', one or more cross-
members, the rockers (as part of the sideframe) and the bulkheads at the ends of the
compartment [2]. These members, in idealized form are shown in Figure 2.
 5

Loaded
out of Cross-member
Transmission plane
tunnel \ /

Bulkhead

Rocker— Bending
(sideframe) moment
:I:71
Torque
Active member -
internal forces Shear force

Figure 2: Grillage structure [3].

2.1.2 Backbone Structure

This is an example of the large section tube concept. It is used on specialists

sport cars like Lotus as shown in Figure 3. It still amounts to a separate chassis
frame. The large cross-sectional area of the backbone member derives the backbone
chassis stiffness. A typical size might be around 200mm x 150mm. The walls of the
tube are in shear when in tubular structures in torsion. In Lotus case, the wall of the
tube consists of shear panels. However there are other ways of carrying in plane
shear like a triangulated bay of welded or brazed can also form a very effective and
efficient shear carrying structure. The combined stiffness of the chassis and the
attached body together is greater than the sum of the stiffness of the individual items.
This reflects the facts that the connection between the two merely at the ends, but is
made at many points, giving a combined which is highly statically in determinate.
Figure 3: Sheet steel backbone chassis of Lotus car [2]

2.1.3 Triangulated Tube Structure

This tube arrangement is not limited to backbone structures only. A common

approach which is using this principle is the bathtub layout in which the triangulated
structure surrounds the outside of the body. This approach has the advantage that the
coachwork can consist of thin sheet metal cladding, attached directly to the
framework. This method is best suited to low volume production because of low
tooling costs. It is not well suited to mass production due to complication and labors
intensive maintenances. This type of chassis usually used in some specialist sports
cars, such as the TVR as shown in Figure 4.

••__-.-'z1
45 c)

Figure 4: Backbone chassis made of triangulated tubes [2]

 7

2.1.4 Incorporation of Roll Cage into Structure

The best way of using the tube principle is to make the tube encompass the
whole car body. This is shown in Figure 5. The triangulated roll cage extends to the
passengers compartment. This make the cross-sectional area of the body very large
hence the torsion constant is large also. The contribution of the roll cage depended
on:

i. The degree of triangulation in the roll cage

ii. On how well the roll cage was connected to the rest of the structure.

Figure 5: Triangulated sports car structure with integrated roll cage [2].

2.1.5 Pure Monoque

Monoque in French means single shell. In this structure, the outer skin
Performs the dual role of the body surface and structure. This type of structures is
very rare compare to other structures. The used is restricted to racing cars only as
shown in Figure 6. This is because of certain reasons which are:

L It requires a totally closed tube to work efficiently. Because of this, the

normal vehicle will have an opening for passengers entry thus it will be
an interruption to single shell which then lowering the torsion stiffness.
 8

ii. The shell requires reinforcement to prevent buckling and to carry-out-

plane loads.

Figure 6: Monocoque structure [2].

2.1.6 Punt or Platform Structure

This structure usually is from sheet metal construction which the floor
members are large closed section and with a good joint between members. It is like a
grillage structure of members with high torsion and bending properties. This
structure always used for low production volume vehicles which the body styles or
rapid model are required. Figure 7 is an example of Punt chassis.
Figure 7: Punt chassis [2].

2.1.7 Perimeter Space Frame or Birdcage Frame

In this structure, relatively small section tubular members are built into stiff
jointed ring beam bays welded together at joints or nodes. The individual open bay
ring frames is not weight efficient shear structure. If the shear stiffness of the skin
panels is incorporated into this type of body, it becomes integral structure and a
considerable increase in torsional rigidity is usually observed, depending on the
stiffness of the attachment. An example of perimeter or birdcage frame is the Audi
A2 aluminum vehicle as shown in Figure 8.
 10

2.1.8 Integral or Unitary Body Structure

This type of structure is the most widely used in modem car structure type.
The body is self supporting so that the separate chassis omitted with a saving in
weight. The first integral car bodies were introduced in the 1930s. The integral body
is a mixture of the monocoque and the birdcage types. The body forms a closed box
torsion structure which results in high stiffness. The panels and body components in
this structure are stamped from sheet metal and fixed together mostly by spot
welding, clinching, laser welding or other methods. The beam members are formed
out of folded or pressed sheet steel shapes and welded together. A notable example
was the Citroen 11 CV, shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9: Integral body structure [2].

2.2 Computer modeling

2.2.1 Solid Model

Final chassis geometry that resulted from sketch and analysis was used to
Produce a solid model constructed by using Solidworks. This solid model represents
what the chassis will look like when it is constructed which was useful for surfacing
the body shell, checking components clearances and spacing, verifying vision
 11

requirements, and deciding mounting locations. All major components to be

mounted in the chassis were meticulously created to give an accurate picture of
spacing and clearance concerns [3].

2.2.2 Finite Element Analysis

The computerized structural analysis techniques have become the key link
between structural design and computer-aided drafting. However because the small
size of the elements usually prevents an overall view, the automation of the analysis
tend to mask the significance of the major structural scantlings. A series of finite
element analyses ensued after the creation of preliminary model. Excessive high
local stresses and deflections were reduced and material thicknesses were optimized
in an iterative manner which was especially helpful in optimizing the front and rear
space frame [3]. A fine mesh analysis will give an accurate stress and deflection
prediction, course mesh can give a degree in structural feel useful in the later stage of
conceptual design. The principal steps in the FEA process are:

L idealization of the structure

ii. evaluation of stiffness matrices element groups
iii. assembly these matrices into a supermatrix
iv. application of constraint and loads
V. solving equation for nodal displacement
A. finding member loading

The first stage is getting the static and dynamic stiffness and from here,
comes structural refinement and optimization based on load inputs and also projected
torsional and bending stiffness. The key factor in a vehicle body analysis and
modeling is joint stiffness which involves in modifying the local properties of the
main beam elements of a structural frame.
 12

23 Chassis Design

The vehicle chassis links the mounting points for vehicle's front suspension,
steering, engine, transmission, rear suspension, final drive, fuel tank, seat for
occupants, and in this case, motor controller, electric motor and batteries[3]. The
chassis requires toughness to sustain punishing fatigue loads from the road, power
unit and the driver. There are several parameters needs to be considered during the
chassis phase design. These parameters include:

L Passenger Accommodation
ii. Materials for fabrication
iii. Battery Housings
iv. Packaging

23.1 Passenger Accommodation

Ergonomics play a vital role in the design and to accommodate the needs of
the passengers, the chassis' mid-monoque was designed to provide ample space for
comfort and clear visibility [3]. Rough passenger compartment dimensions and
measurement are taken followed by the measurements for the seat car and this will
be used as a general layout for compartment of the car. This also will help in
deciding the distance between the front tires to the rear tire beside the distance from
front to rear firewall.

2.3.2 Material for Fabrications

Choice of materials decided upon considering manufacturability,

recyclability, material properties, safety, and ability to model accurately finite
element analysis and availability. Square steels were choosing to construct the
 13

chassis because of their toughness and simpler computer modeling advantages. It is

recyclable and easy to manufacture with the available tools and machinery. This
material has exceptional versatility in terms of formability, strength and cost.

Advantages of steel:

i. -low cost
ii. -Ease of forming
iii. -Consistency of supply
iv. -Corrosion resistance with zinc coatings
V. -Ease ofjoining
vi. -Recyclable
vii. -Good crash energy absorption

Disadvantages

i. -Heavier than alternative material

ii. -corrosion if uncoated

Higher strength steel with wide range of yield strength values can to
1 200Mpa. Designs can be suitably modified to either improve performance at
existing thickness or down gauge with strength related parts. Although stiffness
remains unaltered it is possible to offset decreased torsional rigidity. The full range
of steels used in automotive design from the forming grades with a minimum yield of
1 40N/mm2.

2.3.2.1 Square Frame Rails

Under pure vertical bending load, square tube is stiffer than round tube. This
is important because this design does not have a roof to stiffen the passenger's
 14

compartment. By using the rectangular tubing, we can add an X member acting as

additional longitudinal beam reinforcement and as two transverse members. This is
hard to be done if the round tube is used.

2.4 Structural Integrity

2.4.1 Stiffness

The stiffness of a vehicle structure has important influences on its handling

and vibrational behaviors. The deflections due to extreme loads have to be ensured
not so large.

2.4.1.1 Torsional Stiffness

The torsional stiffness of the chassis was determined by using rigid beams to
conservatively model all suspension geometry while the rear wheels were held fixed.
The angle difference between the front and rear axles is determined by using the
displacement results. An over designed chassis is acceptable but an under designed
chassis could be devastating. The stiffness of an ideal unitized structure is
Proportional to the square of the distance of the components from the centerline [6].

2.4.1.2 Bending Stiffness

Bending stiffness is a measure of an individual chassis to resist deflection due

to a vertical load. It is measured in pounds per inch of deflection. It relates the