All i can say after working on a formula student project for two years is research, research, research. Look at what other teams have done in the past, see what has worked, buy a decent suspension design book, i have this one which i would recommend highly
You have to design your suspension first, which will be entirely determined by the pick up points that you will be able to position on the rear spaceframe chassis of the car, then you are limited by how large you can make the upright and therefore the positions of the pickups on there (u running 10" or 13" wheels? the guy designing our suspension told me that it is a struggle to get everything into a 10" and find tyres, but they are ultimately a better bet for performance).
Luckily you dont have to worry about steering as you are doing the rear, but that is an absolute ballache!
the detailed design of the Hubs, uprights, wishbones and pickups come after youve finalised your rear suspension geometry. you'll need a suspension design geometry program such as susprog to be able to try out different designs.
As for the detailed design, dont try and re-invent the wheel and think of the costs involved in manufacture (costing carries a lot of marks in the FS event).
But i'd advise rear hubs similar to any front wheel drive car hubs you'll see, internally cut spline into which the outboard CV joint bolts and a flange with a radiused section reducing down to a smaller diameter passing through two tapered roller bearings mounted in the upright. I'd CNC turn the hub from a high grade aluminium, and the best cheapest, easiest to alter way of making the upright is fabricated steel.
Make the wishbones from T45 tubing, do stress analysis on them to see how small you can make them, with welded in threaded inserts in either end to accept the rod ends on the inboard suspension pickups, the outboard bearings will be determined by how you are attaching the upright to the wishbones!
Basically, if you are lost, get help, call up previous years designers, research other cars, ask for help from tutors, cus if you plough on regardless without knowing what you are doing, at best you'll have a heavy shite handeling car, and at worst it will break and injur a driver or someone else.
Good luck with it though, it'll teach you things that nothing else at university will, i recommend it to any mechanical engineering student!! (Who is willing to work and has a good sense of humour!)
Help designing Upright, Hub, Pushrod, Spring and Shock!
Linear Mode
