Automobile Chassis And Frame

CHASSIS

4 Wheel Chassis

6 Wheel Chassis
Automotive chassis is a skeletal frame on which various mechanical parts like engine, tires, axle
assemblies, brakes, steering etc. are bolted. The chassis is considered to be the most significant
component of an automobile. It is the most crucial element that gives strength and stability to the
vehicle under different conditions. Automobile frames provide strength and flexibility to the
automobile. The backbone of any automobile, it is the supporting frame to which the body of an
engine, axle assemblies are affixed. Tie bars, that are essential parts of automotive frames, are
fasteners that bind different auto parts together.
Automotive chassis is considered to be one of the significant structures of an automobile. It is
usually made of a steel frame, which holds the body and motor of an automotive vehicle. More
precisely, automotive chassis or automobile chassis is a skeletal frame on which various
mechanical parts like engine, tires, axle assemblies, brakes, steering etc are bolted. At the time of

manufacturing, the body of a vehicle is flexibly molded according to the structure of chassis.
Automobile chassis is usually made of light sheet metal or composite plastics. It provides
strength needed for supporting vehicular components and payload placed upon it. Automotive
chassis or automobile chassis helps keep an automobile rigid, stiff and unbending. Auto chassis
ensures low levels of noise, vibrations and harshness throughout the automobile. The different
types of automobile chassis include:
Ladder Chassis: Ladder chassis is considered to be one of the oldest forms of automotive
chassis or automobile chassis that is still used by most of the SUVs till today. As its name
connotes, ladder chassis resembles a shape of a ladder having two longitudinal rails inter linked
by several lateral and cross braces.
Backbone Chassis: Backbone chassis has a rectangular tube like backbone, usually made up of
glass fibre that is used for joining front and rear axle together. This type of automotive chassis or
automobile chassis is strong and powerful enough to provide support smaller sports car.
Backbone chassis is easy to make and cost effective.
Monocoque Chassis: Monocoque Chassis is a one-piece structure that prescribes the overall
shape of a vehicle. This type of automotive chassis is manufactured by welding floor pan and
other pieces together. Since monocoque chassis is cost effective and suitable for robotised
production, most of the vehicles today make use of steel plated monocoque chassis.
Motorcycle Chassis
An important type of automotive chassis, motorcycle chassis comprise of different auto parts and
components like auto frame, wheels, two wheeler brakes and suspension. Its basically the frame
for motorbikes that holds these components together. A motorbike chassis can be manufactured
from different materials. But the commonly used materials are steel, aluminum, or magnesium.
Car Chassis
The main structure of a car is known as chassis. Car chassis functions as a support for the
different car parts. Automotive parts like engine, suspension & steering mechanism braking
system, auto wheels, axle assemblies and transmission are mounted on the car chassis.

Integral Chassis

Tata Nano Chassis

Bus Chassis
Bus chassis is the design and quality of bus chassis depends on the capacity of bus. It can be
tailor made according to the needs and can be availed with features like transverse mounted
engine, air suspension as well as anti-roll bars. A well manufactured bus chassis offers various
benefits like high torque from low revs, superior brake performance and more. Bus chassis
designed for urban routes differs from the one manufactured for suburban routes.

Volvo Bus chassis

Truck Chassis
Truck chassis, the backbone of any truck is designed to provide a comfortable and dependable
ride. New invention in automotive sector has influenced the automobile chassis manufacturers to
adopt latest trends and come up with new designs. In the present world, a truck chassis comes
with enhanced geometry, power steering, disc brakes and other truck parts.
FRAME

A frame is the main structure of the chassis of a motor vehicle. All other components fasten to it;
a term for this is design is body-on-frame construction.
In 1920, every motor vehicle other than a few cars based on motorcycles had a frame. Since then,
nearly all cars have shifted to unit-body construction, while nearly all trucks and buses still use
frames.
TYPES OF FRAME
Ladder Frame
So named for its resemblance to a ladder, the ladder frame is the simplest and oldest of all
designs. It consists merely of two symmetrical rails, or beams, and crossmember connecting
them. Originally seen on almost all vehicles, the ladder frame was gradually phased out on cars
around the 1940s in favor of perimeter frames and is now seen mainly on trucks.
This design offers good beam resistance because of its continuous rails from front to rear, but
poor resistance to torsion or warping if simple, perpendicular crossmembers are used. Also, the
vehicle's overall height will be higher due to the floor pan sitting above the frame instead of
inside it.
Backbone tube
Backbone chassis is a type of an automobile construction chassis that is similar to the body-onframe design. Instead of a two-dimensional ladder type structure, it consists of a strong tubular
backbone (usually rectangular in cross section) that connects the front and rear suspension
attachment areas. A body is then placed on this structure.
Perimeter Frame
Similar to a ladder frame, but the middle sections of the frame rails sit outboard of the front and
rear rails just behind the rocker panels/sill panels. This was done to allow for a lower floor pan,
and therefore lower overall vehicle in passenger cars. This was the prevalent design for cars in
the United States, but not in the rest of the world, until the uni-body gained popularity and is still
used on US full frame cars. It allowed for annual model changes introduced in the 1950s to
increase sales, but without costly structural changes.
In addition to a lowered roof, the perimeter frame allows for more comfortable lower seating

positions and offers better safety in the event of a side impact. However, the reason this design
isn't used on all vehicles is that it lacks stiffness, because the transition areas from front to center
and center to rear reduce beam and torsional resistance, hence the use of torque boxes, and soft
suspension settings.
Superleggera
An Italian term (meaning "super-light") for sports-car construction using a three-dimensional
frame that consists of a cage of narrow tubes that, besides being under the body, run up the
fenders and over the radiator, cowl, and roof, and under the rear window; it resembles a geodesic
structure. The body, which is not stress-bearing, is attached to the outside of the frame and is
often made of aluminium.
Unibody
By far the most common design in use today, sometimes referred to as a sort of frame.
But the distinction still serves a purpose: if a unibody is damaged in an accident, getting bent or
warped, in effect its frame is too, and the vehicle undrivable. If the body of a body-on-frame
vehicle is similarly damaged, it might be torn in places from the frame, which may still be
straight, in which case the vehicle is simpler and cheaper to repair.
Sub frame
The sub frame, or stub frame, is a boxed frame section that attaches to a unibody. Seen primarily
on the front end of cars, it's also sometimes used in the rear. Both the front and rear are used to
attach the suspension to the vehicle and either may contain the engine and transmission .
The most prolific example is the 1967-1981 Chevrolet Camaro.
The chassis is the rigid skeleton of the car, or spaceframe, upon which all the components
are fixed.
The overall design of the chassis is mainly determined by strength and stiffness requirements,
safety regulations, driver comfort, packaging and weight reduction. The FSAE chassis
compulsarily consists of
1. Impact attenuator
2. Front bulkhead
3. Front roll hoop
4. Side impact structure
5. Main roll hoop

The chassis must be able to bear all the loads that may appear on it during any driving condition.
It is vital for driver safety. The material usually used for making the chassis is mild steel. Mild
steel tubes are welded together using TIG welding to form the network seen above.
One of the most important parameters that indicate the stiffness of the chassis is torsional
stiffness. The rear end of the chassis is held fixed and the chassis is twisted. Torsional Stiffness is
defined as the force that must be applied at the suspension to cause an angular deflection of 1
degree in the chassis.

The Impact Attenuator is a component fitted at the nose of the car that offers shock protection in
the event of a head on collision.
The chassis team is also responsible for design and manufacture of body panels which increase
aesthetic appeal, protection from debris, and smoothen out the airflow around the car.
Aerodynamics
In Formula 1, aerodynamics is the system that costs teams more money than anything else when
it comes to R&D.
The main goals of aerodynamic research is to minimise drag and maximise downforce. Higher
downforce means better handling, acceleration. Lower drag means lower fuel consumption,
higher top speeds.
For the uninitiated: Air pressure on a surface results in a force on the surface. Integral of these
elememtal forces across the entire surface is the total aerodynamic force on the body. The
component of this force in the direction of the airflow is called drag. The perpendicular
component is called Lift. In the case of cars, Lift is referred to as Downforce.
A body can have zero downforce/lift but drag is always non zero. Since these two are not
independant quantities, varying one usually causes changes in the other. Hence aerodynamic
design is an optimisation problem, where one decides the geometry that gives the best
Downforce-to-drag ratio (known as Aerodynamic Efficiency).
Simulation software such as ANSYS Fluent and wind tunnel testing is employed for this
purpose.
Commonly used dedicated aerodynamic devices are Wings and Diffuser. Lesser known devices
include Gurney flaps, vortex generators and F-Ducts.
Quite often in engineering, one also needs to consider the question "Should we build it?" when
we consider "Can we build it?". Due to feasibility considerations, our FSAE cars will not have
any dedicated aero devices other than diffuser for the foreseeable future. Current focus is on drag
reduction and improvement of cooling system.