Design and Optimization of a S.A.E. Baja Suspension

Due to the harsh conditions of the suspension and endurance challenges of the SAE Baja competitions, a series of suspension components on the previous year’s vehicle failed. This design for the 2024 SAE Baja competition attempts to address these issues through improved estimation of expected loadings, higher quality analysis of the suspension system, and a more robust design capable of withstanding higher impact and bending loads. MatLab Simulink was used to create a dynamic model of the suspension for the 2024 Baja vehicle that can accurately predict the peak acceleration and force applied to the vehicle under various drops, bumps, and impacts. This data was used to generate loading cases for each component of the Baja Car’s suspension system. These loads were modeled in Solidworks where finite element analysis was used to analyze the survivability of the suspension under harsh conditions.