Design Optimization of Race Car Steering Knuckle for Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing enables increased geometric complexity in structural configuration compared with conventional manufacturing methods. A Physics-first Computer Aided engineering (CAE) process beginning with structural topology optimization enables engineers to take advantage of this increased geometric design freedom. This work develops and demonstrates the steps and tools necessary to realize complex design configuration for additive manufactured. This report looks at the race car steering knuckle using the UTA FSAE upright as a case study. The stiffness driven upright component design is executed using topology optimization and NURBS based surface modeling tools. The topology optimization model is developed for 3 different load conditions driven by a maximum stiffness objective and volume fraction constraint. The resultant coarse, noisy, meshed isosurface is then translated to smooth Non Uniformed Rational Basis Spline (NURBS) based geometry. This work outlines the geometric operations and complexities involved in realizing the design. This process development effort shows the current capabilities and limitation of commercial Computer Aided Design (CAD) software and outlines procedures to realize complex design configurations for additive manufacturing.