Topology design optimization of vehicle steering part

Formula SAE is an engineering competition supported by the international automotive engineer's association where small single-race cars designed by international engineering students. It has been organized for over 20 years. Engineering students build the race cars completely themselves from design to construction and driving. Key point of success in the competition is to design a fast, light and durable vehicle. In this thesis, the Formula SAE has been redesigned to make Bell Crank lighter and more resistant to external load, allowing the movement to be changed at an angle. Optimization methods have been used for this purpose. In the optimization process, firstly the topology optimization was performed and the optimum outline of the part was obtained. In order to improve this design, the most suitable design was obtained by size optimization. In the optimization process, HyperMesh was used in finite element modeling, Optistruct was used in topology optimization and analysis, HyperStudy was used for size optimization and HyperView software was used in the results analysis. As a result of the analysis, the optimized part is made of 7000 series Aluminum material and physical loading tests are performed on the hydraulic piston test unit at regular intervals. Force and displacement graphs were obtained based on time. The tests were continued until the part underwent permanent deformation. The part that entered the deformation area was measured by three-dimensional scanning and its deviations were calculated. As a result, it was concluded that optimized material was very reasonable and usable.