I read thru most of the paper so far. I haven't had time to carefully look at the diagrams to see all the actual changes. I think it's quite a good work for a collage student. Computing resources where much less available in 1992. Considering the 20+ years that have passed that would be about a 50,000 time improvement in computing resources.
At the end of the paper there are comparisons with other frame types that are interesting.
John, I disagree with your basic assessments of this paper. For instance you say:
Quote:
in the torsional test they did not account for deformation at varying points down the chassis and appeared to treat the chassis as a solid object, this may be helpful to achieving the results they wanted but is of little use in determining where the chassis is deforming and in which direction at different points.
The point of this paper is that the testing was done with computer models. The model would generate displacements of every node in the chassis in 3 dimensions to a good number of decimal places. So there is no reason to think this student treated the chassis as a solid object.
The computer modeling makes it easy to study how a frame really reacts. In much more detail than you can get just with dial gauges. Dial gauges let you see how the frame moves but don't tell you what the loads on the tubes are. You have to infer that from experience or sit down and do potentially a lot of math. It's not realistic to do it by hand really.
I also think breaking the design down into little boxes can be useful, but by no means should it be the only or basic way you approach the design. I remember the first time I changed a tube at the very back of my frame and it caused the diagonals across the front face of the nose to light up. It was exciting but also forced me to try to also think of the whole frame as a system. The feature that allows the software to animate the model and show it flexing back and forth with greatly exaggerated motion is also a big help. Seeing how the bullheads warp showed me how to build more stiffness into the frame.
All in all I think it was a commendable effort from a student…