Baja Racing 2024 Roll Cage Design and Analysis

Every year the Union College SAE Baja Competition Team designs and builds an off-roading vehicle that is brought to national venues to compete against other universities. The Baja vehicle is composed of a roll cage, drivetrain system, suspension system, and driver controls which allow the driver to navigate through dynamic events such as the acceleration, suspension, and endurance tests. The roll cage is required to keep all competition and testing participants safe from all impacts and collisions that may be experienced during vehicle testing, as well as providing strong mounting points for all vehicle subsystems to build upon. Every year the roll cage must undergo a rigorous design process in which each member is placed, measured, and checked properly to ensure the entirety of the roll cage conforms to the current SAE Baja Ruleset. For the 23-24 season, a new method for checking each individual member of the frame was produced via an Excel Spreadsheet. Additionally, new calculations were completed to determine accurate impact forces the vehicle may experience during crash scenarios. These values were then applied during crash testing analysis to ensure the roll cage would keep the driver of the vehicle safe.