Optimum Design and Material Selection of Baja Vehicle

Abstract

This paper provides a complete design and analysis of “Baja vehicle” or “All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV)”. While designing this Baja vehicle, all the design aspects were taken as per the rules of Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)-2014. The main objective of this paper was to design and optimize the roll cage, front and rear suspension system, power train system. The finite element analysis (FEA) is also done on the roll cage for validating the design. Initially, a preliminary design of the roll cage was made as a 3-D model using CAD. The designed Baja vehicle is an off-road vehicle powered by 350 cc, four strokes, 10 BHP engine, driven by manual transmission. Material selection was based on the basis of factors like weight, cost, availability and performance. In present work, the overall design of vehicle has been categorized into subsystems: Roll cage, engine, Powertrain, suspension, steering, braking and ergonomics. This paper also provides an overview of the design for each of the subsystems of the vehicle. The designed and fabricated subsystems are equally strong and rugged