|
Abstract:
|
Umicore
Electra
is
a
vehicle
designed,
built
and
operated
by
the
Université
de
Liège
to
race
in
the
Shell
Eco‐Marathon.
Students
have
been
designing
this
car
for
several
years
improving
its
components
and
its
operation.
Topology
optimization
is
a
design
methodology
that
is
fastly
growing
in
industrial
applications
thanks
to
the
evolution
of
computers
and
to
the
applying
character
of
the
tool.
Additive
manufacturing
is
a
novel
manufacturing
technique
that
is
also
developing
and
being
used
more
and
more
in
research
and
industry.
These
two
technologies
are
strongly
connected
providing
new
procedures
to
design
and
manufacture
elements.
The
aim
of
this
thesis
is
to
use
these
two
novel
technologies
to
design
a
new
support
for
the
electric
motors
and
the
supporting
plate
for
the
Umicore
Electra
car.
This
work
is
done
in
order
to
solve
a
bending
flexibility
problem
that
has
been
detected
in
the
car.
The
current
solution
to
this
problem
is
based
on
adding
extra
elements
that
compromise
the
weight
of
the
car
and
its
aerodynamics.
Therefore,
the
objective
of
the
project
is
on
the
one
hand
to
design
new
components
to
make
the
structure
stiffer,
and
on
the
other
hand
to
optimize
the
weight
of
these
components.
To
achieve
this
purpose,
finite
element
techniques
and
topology
optimization
are
used.
The
first
thing
that
has
been
done
is
the
definition
of
the
load
case
that
the
components
have
to
withstand.
Afterwards,
this
load
cases
are
used
to
carry
out
the
topology
optimization
in
order
to
design
the
new
components
concepts.
Based
on
topology
optimization
results,
CAD
models
of
the
components
have
been
proposed
while
detailed
finite
elements
analyses
have
been
used
to
check
their
structural
integrity
under
operating
conditions. |
