Anyone here race go karts?

Hi All,

I'm a mechanical engineering student and I have to conduct a survey as part of an assignment I'm doing. The assignment is on an alternative to the traditional tubular metal chassis which suffers performance degradation caused by strain hardening as the kart experiences bending and twisting loads in normal use.

The alternative is a composite sandwich panel (the assumption is that the rules will change at some point to allow this) anyway I'm trying to gauge consumer acceptance of such a frame so if you've had some experience with racing karts at a club level (not hire karts as I'm seeking opinions of people who are well up to speed with the karting scene) and are willing to spare a few minutes, here's the link.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/25M3RCJ

And if you're not sure what a sandwich panel is, this may help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsQ8JGBhR-8

It should be noted that I will not attempt to manufacture or use a sandwich panel kart frame, it's all hypothetical for the purposes of an assignment.


Thanks
Splint

The problem you face is that the tubular chassis is also part of the Kart's suspension. It will be VERY difficult to emulate that function in a monococ frame design. Without the flexing the Kart will NOT turn very well.

Almost 40 years of Dirt,sprint,enduro kart racing (;-). TP

Thanks Vmax, yeah I was hoping I could overcome that with creative design, I suspect I will not be able to duplicate the behavioral properties of a tubular frame though. It's not that critical that the design be a success. I may actually receive a better score from the lecturer for identifying the shortcomings and declaring it as a project that is destined to fail rather than try and sell a dud concept as a winner.

I will have to draw the frame in solidworks and do some deflection/torsional analysis in Ansys. At least that way I can compare it with a tubular chassis and show that it has limited chance of being a success.

I am not saying that it cannot be done but it will take a LOT of analysis of the flex points and movement values of tube chassis and a Overall design of the composite frame to emulate the tube design. NOTE that I mentioned Flex point movement values as the ""amount of movement"" is critical to the overall weight transfer to the tire contact points.

It is NOT rocket science BUT it IS very close, (;-)

(;-) TP