Designing and Static Analysis of the Roll Cage of an All-Terrain Vehicle (SAE E-Baja) 2020-28-0378

An All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) as defined by the American National standards institute (ANSI) is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires and with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with the handlebars for steering control. A roll cage can be defined as a skeleton of an ATV. In case of impacts and rollover incidents, the roll cage is responsible for the protection of the driver. The objective is to design, analyze and optimize the roll cage under a set of particular rules given by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The designing is carried out using CATIA-V5 software according to the guidelines and rules. It is done in such a manner that no rule is being violated as well as give appropriate strength to the roll cage. The static analysis is carried out using CATIA-V5 software for different collisions like front, side, rear, and rollover. The main objective of the analysis is to obtain a roll cage enough strong to bear such adverse conditions as well as light in weight for better performance. The force acting on the various parts of the roll cage is calculated according to the maximum speed that the vehicle can attain by using the Work-Energy Theorem. For rollover case, it is assumed that the vehicle falls from the maximum height possible during the endurance on the track and the corresponding force is calculated. Von-mises stress is then obtained for various collisions. The safety of the roll cage can be ensured by obtaining optimum factor of safety. During the analysis, the forces came out to be 13000N for front, 6000N for rear, 6000N for side and 7500N for rollover impact. For each case, the factor of safety came out to be between a safe limit.