Designing and verifying the concept of Silesian Greenpower electric bolide structure

The purpose of the following paper is to demonstrate the thought processes behind the design and verification of the electric race car structure. The developed structures were modelled in the CAD environment of Siemens NX 10.0 program. The main aim of inventing different solutions was to improve the characteristics of the car. These characteristics include, for instance, aerodynamic drag and gearbox friction. After the framework was established, work on the shape of the body began. The body alterations are understood as reducing the overall width of the car, decreasing the cross-section area and tilting the sides of the sheathing in order to minimise the generated aerodynamic drag. All elements were verified computationally to check whether they can be improved by altering their geometry. Main condition upon which every modification was made was to switch from the previous belt transmission to the newly designed chain transmission. The most significant change in the frame was reducing the back-section width in order to accommodate the chain transmission. Furthermore, it was required to enable easy switching of the transmission from chain to belt. Next step of the project was adding the mechanism enabling the tilting of wheels rotational axis in relation to the ground. (paper)