Purdue Formula SAE Chassis Bulkhead Project

This project focused on designing and performing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of the chassis bulkhead for the Purdue FSAE team. The bulkhead, the front-most chassis component made of strong closed-section tubing, is required by rules to protect the driver’s legs in a crash.

It needed to be strong and stiff enough to withstand impact, suspension, and pedal loads, while also mounting the impact attenuator and anti-intrusion plate (AIP) with at least 25 mm pedal clearance at full travel. The design goals were maximizing driver safety, improving system reliability with a rigid mounting surface, and enhancing performance by reducing nose weight and yaw inertia.

The bulkhead was modeled in NX software to produce a Top-Level Assembly (TLA), which was tested with FEA under a 50,000 N frontal load applied through the AIP into the four welded corners. Results showed a maximum Von-Mises stress of 260,140 psi in the AISI 4130 steel bulkhead. Proposed improvements included lowering AIP deflection by adding stiffeners, cutting lightening holes in low-stress areas to save weight, and reinforcing the central high-stress region to improve load distribution. Presentation is linked below.