Preliminary design of an automotive component in composite material

A sandwich-structured composite is a special panel obtained by the combination of multiple layers made by different materials. In general, a sandwich is composed by 3 layers, two outer (skin) and one intermediate (core). This structure is nowadays common in almost every sector because incorporate the advantages of the different materials, such as light weight, high strength, and stiffness. In this way, great number of combinations using different materials are possible and so, this makes the structure affordable for many applications, from automotive to aerospace. Madflex is an innovative sandwich-structured composite developed by Composite Research SRL, with the incredible goals of combining flexibility and stiffness on a single panel. Sandwich-structured composite are widespread for aerodynamic devices such as wings, both in automotive and aerospace industry. For Automotive sector, rear wings are widely used to generate rear downforce, improving the adherence to the ground. In this thesis work, after a first part that includes the main notions of the topics covered, the research will concern the study of the main rear wing deriving from a competition quadricycle and in particular, the analysis of the wing made in MadFlex. Therefore the objective of this thesis is to model the rear wing obtained from a competition quadricycle model, to carry out aerodynamic analyzes to verify the loads acting on it and finally, to apply them in a structural analysis model to verify if it is possible to model the wing with the innovative MadFlex composite and whether there can be any advantage in doing so.