Category Student team
Where Team Meridian solar car - student team
Year 2025
My part Load cases, FEA, design for manufacture, machining
Result 380 g per upright, passed scrutineering first time
I joined the team in my third year and took the front uprights, which is a good first component - small enough to finish, important enough that nobody lets you be sloppy.
The brief was mass, stiffness and a bearing fit we could actually machine in the university workshop. I ran the load cases from the vehicle dynamics group, took three iterations through FEA, then sat with the technician and cut two features out of the design because they would have needed a fourth setup.
Final part: 380 g, 1.8 mm deflection at the design case, and it went through scrutineering without a comment.
