Design of a carbon fiber suspension system for FSAE applications

Abstract

Reducing weight while maintaining structural integrity is one of the key challenges Formula SAE teams face as they try and design the suspension of the formula car. The purpose of this paper is to present experimental data on designing and optimizing a carbon fiber suspension system for formula cars. The reason carbon fiber suspensions are favored over the current steel suspensions is because of they can reduce the weight of the suspension by 50%. Pull tests on an Instron machine were performed on over 15 specimens composed of a carbon fiber tube with an aluminum insert bonded to each end. Loctite E-120HP epoxy was used and the surface preparation, bond gap, and bond length were varied to find the optimal bond strength. An average bond strength of 2,382.6 pounds per square inch was determined for specimens with surface preparation. Furthermore a bond gap of 0.0065 to 0.008 inches was found to give the strongest bond.