Diseño y construcción de pontones laterales y frontales en fibra de carbono aplicado a un vehículo prototipo karting para la carrera de Ingeniería Automotriz

Abstract

One of the main obstacles to increase the karting performance is the excessive weight it can acquire due to the materials used in the manufacture of its body components. For this reason, the objective of this research was to manufacture side and front pontoons using carbon fiber as a material and thus improve the aerodynamic resistance and track performance of the vehicle. The methodology implemented had a quantitative and qualitative approach, where we obtained precise and objective numerical measurements of aerodynamic performance and drag through finite element analysis, also comparisons were made between different CAD prototypes to relate their different coefficients and aerodynamic loads. By means of this methodology it was possible to determine through simulations in ANSYS CFX software that the design chosen for the construction presented a lift coefficient of -0.35 and a drag coefficient of 0.59, also in relation to the resistance of the material it was determined that carbon fiber has good bending and traction properties. In this context, it was concluded that carbon fiber is a sufficiently resistant material and its structural performance places it as a good replacement for other common materials in competitions such as plastics or fiberglass.