Freshman studying mechanical engineering at UGA.

Support the intake without damaging it.

The intake is 3D-printed and has to stay exactly where it is. The FSAE rules set the constraints. Supports attached to the engine must be rigid. Supports attached to the chassis need some isolation for engine movement. Threaded fasteners need positive locking, so a loose fastener can’t fall out.

I also wanted to keep the mount light and leave the sensors, bolts and intake removal easy to get to.

Two ideas, one feasible.

Concept 1 clamps the intake neck with a split collar and ties it to two chassis tubes through a crossbar. Concept 2 needed a second mounting point. When I checked it against the CAD model, that point was too far away to be practical, so I developed Concept 1.

The risk with Concept 1 was that a tight clamp could crush the printed intake. To prevent that, I added a nitrile rubber liner between the collar and the intake.

Aluminum where it’s machined, steel where it’s welded.

The clamps are machined from 6061-T651 aluminum because it’s lighter than steel and easy to machine into split collars with built-in tabs. The crossbar and connector are 1018 mild steel, cut into simple pieces and welded in a fixture instead of bent to match the lofted CAD shape. Rubber bushings at the chassis end let the engine move. Steel sleeves stop the bolts from crushing the rubber, and all-metal locking nuts meet the positive-locking rule.

Testing it at 100 N and 600 N.

I ran static stress simulations at 100 N (about 10 kg of force) and 600 N (about 60 kg). The peak von Mises stress was 23.09 MPa at 100 N and 138.5 MPa at 600 N.

Next: trace where each peak sits so I can compare it with that part’s material strength. I also need to check the bushing stiffness and set a torque and compression spec, then test grip and retention on the car.

A plan someone could actually build from.

1. Fit rubber liners inside the aluminum clamps.
2. Close the clamps around the chassis tubes and the intake neck at the CAD locations without moving the intake to force a fit.
3. Insert the bushing halves and metal sleeves into each chassis lug.
4. Bolt on the crossbar, then the connector between the intake collar and the crossbar.
5. Check alignment, tool access and clearance, then torque to a defined spec rather than by feel.

Prices for stock material and hardware are listed supplier prices. Bushings, labor rates and consumables are estimates, not quotes.

Camera, internals and panels inside one frame.

The exploded view shows the plates, rails, solar panels and how the internal equipment is packed. The design changed through part comparisons, camera-fit revisions and an initial orbital power budget.

The camera changed the design.

An early study compared a solid top plate with an open X-frame at an assumed 10 g. The X-frame was 134 g (32.6%) lighter but bent about 49% more. I didn’t keep it, because its 40 mm opening couldn’t fit a camera roughly 95 mm wide. I replaced it with a revised plate that has a larger opening.

Static, modal and thermal.

With the bottom face held fixed at 10 g, the full assembly moved at most 0.462 mm and peaked at 43.58 MPa. Ten reported natural frequencies fell between 77–580 Hz. A steady model with 30 W of internal heat gave temperatures from 1.7 °C to 37.3 °C.

These are early simulation results, and the satellite is not flight-qualified. Next, I need to trace the stress peak to a specific part so I can work out a safety factor. I also need to refine the mesh, model the real supports, and run random-vibration and orbit-cycle thermal analyses.