Designing an automobile from scratch

Replies

• 

  zaveri

  Maybe, when the suspension is designed first, then a mathematical model involving the spring-mass-damper system is created and evaluated.
  
  by doing this, the values of spring stiffness and damping co-efficient is obtained.
  
  what are your takes ?
• 

  white_hat

  How do you design the suspension system without knowing the total weight of the chassis?
• 

  white_hat

  I think we should start from inside out. First start with the number of seats and build
  a car around it.
• 

  zaveri

  #-Link-Snipped-#
  
  obviously the total weight of the chassis will never be known, but an assumption can be made such as:
  
  the (chassis weight + the weight of all subsystems + the total weight of all the passengers + the weight of payload ) * 1.2 times this weight as factor safety.
  
  this value can always be changed as we move ahead with our designing process, since the entire process is an iterative one.
• 

  white_hat

  What is the advantage in designing suspension system at first.Does it make any difference, does it make the whole designing process easy?
  Am not trying to argue with you , just for the sake of knowing it.
• 

  zaveri

  to be honest, the same thing confuses me.
  
  according to me, the first part which should be designed is the chassis frame, but then some guys in my class who had just attended a workshop, told me that the designing should from start from the suspension. but he couldn't justify it either. so i wondered if any experienced CEan can throw more light on this.