Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
IRANIAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-TRANSACTIONS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, 2019 (SCI-Expanded)
Nowadays, electric vehicles are becoming more popular day by day. Prototypes of such vehicles are being built extensively; however, cost of them is usually very high. This study presents novel approaches for design and manufacturing of an electric vehicle chassis and its fixtures with very low cost. The chassis is tub type and its original structure is formed regarding manufacturing simplicity, lightness, robustness, and low cost. This novel chassis is formed by planar and simple aluminum profiles that are readily available in stocks of producers. The design philosophy of the chassis is discussed in detail. Finite element analyses of the chassis are adopted for various crash impact loading scenarios and torsional rigidity. Also, original fixture designs for low-cost manufacturing are introduced in this study. Manufacturing cost of the chassis, fixtures, and the vehicle is presented. After road tests, the results are presented and discussed. It is evidenced that a lightweight and low-cost chassis built from simple planar parts may perform very well. Electric vehicles possessing such simple and robust chassis may be popular due to the manufacturing advantages against today's extremely complex designs.