A South Asian 2 wheeler was developing a new 3 wheeler in the passenger commuter segment. This new three wheeler was designed ground up using design and manufacturing techniques of modern 4 wheelers.

Axiom was contracted to design and develop the 3 wheeler, the engagement started with developing surface data for the vehicle. This was followed by detailed design and engineering for the vehicle.

The key differentiator was to design for crash worthiness for city commute. There were no crash test standards available for 3 wheeler class. Hence this project started with development of crash test protocols based on car crash standards and statistical data of road accidents. The next step was develop a detailed Finite Element (FE) model of the complete vehicle for crash analysis. Material data was partly obtained from the manufacturers and supplemented with material tests. The crash tests wedre carried using a Non linear explicit solver, the results of this virtual test led to design changes on the body and chassis structural elements.

The redesigned structure ensure that the needs of the test protocol were cleared and also ensured that all the redesigned structural were designed for manufacturing.

• Development of test protocol for new vehicle segment
  
• Complete vehicle crash simulation which required complex contact definitions and material models
• Simulation results led to use of closer to real load data for design of structural components and subsystems
• Quick turnaround of design changes suing virtual engineering techniques

Result :

• Quick turnaround of CAE simulation which meant faster time to market
  
• The results fed into better design of components and subsystems for crash
  

Core Competency Leverage: