Holistic design and software aided finite element analysis (FEA) of an All-Terrain Vehicle

摘要

We have tried to design an All-Terrain Vehicle that meets international standards and is also cost effective at the same time. We have focused on every single system to improve the performance of each component. Our vehicle can navigate through almost all terrain, which ultimately is the objective behind the making of any All-Terrain Vehicle. We began the task of designing by conducting extensive research of each main component of the vehicle. We did not want to design certain areas such as the frame, and then make the rest to fit. We considered each component to be significant, and thereby designed the vehicle as a whole trying to optimize each component while constantly considering how other components would be affected. This forced us to think outside the box, research more thoroughly, and redesign components along the way in order to have a successful design. Combining this design methodology with the standard engineering design process enabled us to achieve a perfect match of aesthetics, performance, and ease of operation. Our current design is reliable and stable. Extensive research helped us pinpoint the needs of the customers which helped us to refine our design further. We used the necessary parameters to create a Qualitative Function Diagram (QFD) to determine which parameters were the most critical. These key parameters ranging from most critical to least critical are safety, reliability, low cost, ease of operation and maintenance, and overall performance.