Structural design and analysis of a lightweight composite solar car

Abstract

In 1987 the first world solar challenge was held in Australia with the aim of increasing the awareness of alternative energy transport and furthering the development of these technologies. One of the important contributing factors to the performance of a solar car is the weight, the largest of which is concentrated in the structure of the vehicle. In 2012 the North West University made its first attempt at the South African Solar challenge by building its first solar car dubbed the Batmobile. During the race the poor performance of the car was attributed to a number of reasons of witch the weight was a large contributor. Thus the need arose for the development of a new frame and body that saves as much weight as possible without compromising the safety or reliability of the solar car. Through the use of the finite element modeller Patran and the solver Nastran, a frame for a new solar car was designed and analysed to reduce the weight, while maintaining good reliability. The method used to reduce the weight of the car is based on an iterative process of placing design loads on the structure and changing the geometry or composite material layup to reach a minimum weight and maintaining an adequate safety factor. By the use of this design method a lightweight solar car frame was constructed with a weight of 65kg this equated to a 75kg weight saving over the old car of a 140kg. The new solar car completed the South African and Australian Solar challenges without any structural failures