Nose Cone
Formula SAE
Introduction
Design of the nose cone was made on Solidworks with the aim of reducing drag. As the aerodynamics team lead, I had to make sure that the nose cone model fit the chassis and complied with the Formula Hybrid rules. To do this, it was essential that the aerodynamics team collaborated with chassis and wheels teams. Our aim is to have the nose cone ready for the Formula Hybrid competition this May.
Design Process
The first design of the nose cone did not fit the car because of some changes in the chassis design. So, we had to redesign the nose cone. After the design of the chassis was finalized, we used the sketch picture tool to make sure that the new nose cone design did not intersect with any of the member of the chassis or the impact attenuator. After we finished the design, we put the nose cone and the chassis in an solidworks assembly to double check that there are no intersections of different components.
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The final design was then put in Fusion360 to make slices for the mold required for the manufacturing process.
Manufacturing
The mold for manufacturing is made of foam. The first step in the manufacturing process was laser cutting slices of cardboard to make templates for the foam. The foam is cut to the size of the cardboard templates using a hot wire cutter. These slices of foam are glued together and the whole mold is made to stand vertical using dowels which pass through the nose cone and into a wooden base. Four layers of fiberglass fabric will be layed on this mold, epoxy being applied on each layer of fiberglass and given time to harden.
Compliance with Rules
The major rule that the nose cone had to comply with was that the forward facing radii cannot be lesser than 38mm and this minimum radius must extend to at least forty-five degrees relative to the forward direction, along the top, sides and bottom of all affected edges. In solidworks, two circles (of radius 40 mm) perpendicular to each other were made with the splines as tangents to this circle at the tip of the nose cone. During manufacturing, the compliance of this rule will be made sure by putting a 3D printed hemisphere of radius 40 mm at the tip of the nose cone mold before laying fiberglass.
