For high-performance luxury cars, the first element of competitiveness is given by the dynamic performances. Thus, weight reduction is becoming increasingly important, also in the framework of the introduction of more and more restrictive regulations on emissions. Designers are currently focusing on maximizing the power/weight ratio, and the proper material selection becomes mandatory. This paper describes the weight reduction achievable on the suspension system of a Lamborghini Murcielago showing that the use of high strength low alloy steels as well as titanium and aluminum alloys allows to reduce weight of selected components of more than 30 %. Three different components of the suspension system have been analyzed: the front lower arm, the front suspension spring and the anti-roll bar. According to the method proposed by MF Ashby the design requirements have been translated into a series of constraints, objectives and free variables leading to the definition of material indexes to be used to rank the materials in order to identify the most suitable ones. Ranking was accomplished using the CES (Cambridge Engineering Selector, Grantadesign) software, which allows to create selection charts like the ones shown in Fig 2, 3, 4, 6. Those diagrams help the designer to select graphically the candidate materials for the application which for the studied cases resulted to be: 1. Low alloy steels or aluminum alloys for the front lower arm, 2. Titanium or spring steel for the front suspension spring, 3. Aluminum alloy for the anti-roll bar. Dimensioning of the components on the basis of the selected materials is presented as well demonstrating that a proper materials selection procedure allows to significantly decrease the weight of the studied components with respect to the current solutions.
Criteri di scelta del materiale per l'alleggerimento di betture sportive ad alte prestazion
Werkstoffauswahlkriterien für die Gewichtsreduzierung von Hochleistungssportwagen
Materials selection criteria for the weight reduction of high performance sports car
Metallurgia Italiana ; 101 , 3 ; 31-36
2009
6 Seiten, 6 Bilder, 3 Tabellen, 5 Quellen
Article (Journal)
Italian
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