What tests should I do for lightening an ev chassis

[engineer123]

TL;DR Summary

Wondering if anyone could help me with what kind of tests I should conduct on Ansys or Matlab to for lightening the weight of the chassis

Hi, I am an engineering student and for my project I have decided to try and improve the range of ev through chassis lightening, the main point I'm focusing on is using a carbon fibre material, so I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of tests I would need to do on Ansys or other softwares to verify if the material was safe to use and how thick the chassis would need to be?
Also, if anyone has any ideas I could incorporate to help improve the range in any other aspects of the cars that would be really helpful!

Thank You!

 

[berkeman]

Summary:: Wondering if anyone could help me with what kind of tests I should conduct on Ansys or Matlab to for lightning the weight of the chassis

Hi, I am an engineering student and for my project I have decided to try and improve the range of ev through chassis lightening, the main point I'm focusing on is using a carbon fibre material, so I was just wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of tests I would need to do on Ansys or other softwares to verify if the material was safe to use and how thick the chassis would need to be?
Also, if anyone has any ideas I could incorporate to help improve the range in any other aspects of the cars that would be really helpful!

Thank You!

Welcome to PhysicsForums.

What size EV? Weight, wheelbase, payload, max speed, etc.? What other carbon fiber chassis designs have you studied?

 

[engineer123]

Hi thank you for welcoming me!
In terms of the ev details, its a uni team vehicle that I was going to focus my study on, so I could ask them and get back to you on that information.
The payload is roughly 50 kg driver plus 1.8kg battery section.
Its chassis is made of aluminium, so I was pitching to improve its range through using a carbon fibre material. I am just not sure what kind of tests I should be running on Ansys to comprehensively determine if the how much weight reduction can be achieved.
Only thing I've got right now is maybe do a static structural analysis in which the thickness of the chassis is decreased and see how the stresses and deformation hold up.

 

[berkeman]

The payload is roughly 50 kg driver plus 1.8kg battery section

Wow, that's a tiny battery! Is there solar cell input power too, or just that small battery?

Can you say what the physical differences are between steel, aluminum and carbon fiber structures like chassis?

 

[engineer123]

As far as I am aware I think its only powered by that battery.

I think the real physical difference between the chassis would be that with the stronger material like carbon fibre maybe a thinner chassis could be used to provide the same strength that a steel chassis could, with lower weight.