Books on frame design

[benjo]

Hey guys, I'm going to be joining the SAE team in the coming years at my uni and I'm looking to get some books on chassis design. Looking for stuff on materials and shape design for the chassis, anyone got any recommendations?
Thanks guys.

[benjo]

Hey guys, I'm going to be joining the SAE team in the coming years at my uni and I'm looking to get some books on chassis design. Looking for stuff on materials and shape design for the chassis, anyone got any recommendations?
Thanks guys.

[Jersey Tom]

A statics book. That and solid mechanics. Two bread and butter classes in ME.

If you're designing a spaceframe, once you start doing some analysis (even by hand) you'll note that triangulation is your friend and by adding minimal amounts of material can increase rigidity by an order of magnitude.

The FSAE rule book is also a good one.

[Superfast Matt McCoy]

http://www.sae.org/technical/books/B-706.SET

[benjo]

I have done solids/statics and got a few books on that, was looking for something a little more specific for the field though. Thanks anyway.

Superfast Matt, that site doesn't really explain much about the books. But I'll definitely look into them. Thanks for that.

Can anyone else vouch for them?

[Jersey Tom]

Carroll Smith books are the shit.

Spaceframe building is just an application of statics. Just like upright and spindle design is just an application of solid mechanics and machine design. Keep it simple.

Well. And talk to a welder about joint setup. Shallow angles, big changes in tube thickness, and poor accessability all really suck. And usually.. you get all at once or none at all!

[benjo]

Sweet, thanks heaps fellas. I'll order some of those books then. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Alan]

http://www.amazon.com/Race-Car-Chassis-Construction-Powerpro/dp/0760302839

This is a good book if you never given much thought to the area. I never actually designed a frame for any of the cars I worked on, but dealt with the issues involved with it a lot. Having said that, some things I would keep in mind are:

1. The rules will mandate certain tubes (size and material)
2. Design you frame around your suspension points
3. Connect all your suspension points to a frame node (highly preferred) or as close as your other packaging considerations allow. I'm amazed at how often I don't see this still.
4. To me it seems like the basic shape of FSAE frames that have been successful have converged on one of two designs. There is probably a reason for that.

[Travis Garrison]

Wow $75 for the Forbes Aird chassis book....I paid $20 5-6 years ago. See if a library has it, don't blow $75 on that one unless you're a collector of some sort. It's a good start but not particularly in depth and it doesn't have anything you couldn't get from this forum.

(summary of that book would be: to build a spaceframe connect pyramids; for monocoques aproximiate a circle as best you can, add bulkheads and stringers as required. In both cases avoid bending loads)

Edit: The Chassis engineering book is ok, but for that money I'd pick up the Smith set or maybe:
http://www.amazon.com/Race-Rally-Car-Sourcebook-Competi...4020?ie=UTF8&s=books (http://www.amazon.com/Race-Rally-Car-Sourcebook-Competition/dp/1859608469/sr=1-5/qid=1168701006/ref=sr_1_5/105-9203053-3094020?ie=UTF8&s=books)
and
http://www.amazon.com/Race-Engineering-Mechanics-Paul-V...4020?ie=UTF8&s=books (http://www.amazon.com/Race-Engineering-Mechanics-Paul-Valkenburgh/dp/1557883661/sr=1-1/qid=1168701461/ref=sr_1_1/105-9203053-3094020?ie=UTF8&s=books)

IMHO the Van Valkenburgh book is where everyone should start for broad concepts, and I remember the Staniforth having a lot of good info on al. monocoque chassis construction...and general suspension info.

[McGuyver]

Race Car Engineering & Mechanics by Valkenburg is similar to Aird's book in that it lightly touches on a lot of things. Mine included a shareware suspension design program.

Carrol Smiths 5 book series is available from SAE International for $100.

Check out Alan Staniforth's "Competiton Car Suspension: Design, Construction, Tuning" from Biggerbooks.com for $30.

[benjo]

Sorry for the late reply, my pc crashed. Just bothered to fix it yesterday.

Thanks for all the help there guys but you've done to much now I have to decide which books to buy out of all of them http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gifhttp://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif.

Seeing as Carrol is so recommended has anyone read this book?
http://www.sae.org/servlets/productDetail?PROD_TYP=BOOK&PROD_CD=PT-90

[RaceMag]

I believe you may want to have a look at Costin and Phipps.

[flavorPacket]

I was under the impression that was out of print?

[RaceMag]

I believe that a photocopier never runs out of material, you just need to find someone willing to assist.
Otherwise you can buy it online from book dealers as I did for $75.

[flavorPacket]

never said I didn't have it, merely letting people know that it's less than easy to get

[RaceMag]

well less than the other titles listed true. However it is at least twice the book despite its age.
It seems that were you able to get to a photocopier with the book, there could be many people who would want to spontaneously send you a large amount of beer in exchange for 5 minutes of your time.