nordicf1 wrote:Dear F1 friends, can anyone explain what material the Formula 1 car use today? it looks like alu or titanium at the few pictures I find. Greatful for rules and info about this.
Anders
Anders,
The chassis or "tub" itself is predominately made from Carbon fibre composite layup which may include aluminum or nomex honeycomb cores. Added to this can be layers of kevlar and zylon for wear resistance and layup protection as carbon will "shatter" whicle reinforcements containing aramid fibres have higher fracture toughness and will help prevent stress crack propagation and hold the tub together in an impact.
Attached to the tub are front and rear bulkheads for attaching various things. It is important to remember the engine and gearbox are stressed members of the chassis and so things like the suspension, rear crash structure and rear wings etc are directly mounted to or integrated into these structures.
As per FIA 2012 F1 reg 5.17.8(a) for Static components: Engine crankcases and cylinder heads must be manufactured from cast or wrought aluminum alloys. So a large part of the effective chassis structure is aluminum.
The gearbox casing can be aluminum alloy, carbon fibre, steel or other allowed materials within the FIA regs.
So the "chassis" is mainly carbon firbre, kevalr, zylon, aluminum and titanium. Possibly steel if the gearbox casing is so designed.
The exact list of permitted materials in listed in 15.1.1
15.1.1 The following is the list of permitted materials. These are the only materials permitted to be used in the construction of the Formula One Car provided only that in all cases the material is available on a non-exclusive basis and under normal commercial terms to all competitors.
Permitted materials :
1) Aluminium alloys.
2) Silicon carbide particulate reinforced aluminium alloy matrix composites.
3) Steel alloys.
4) Cobalt alloys.
5) Copper alloys containing ≤ 2.5% by weight of Beryllium.
6) Titanium alloys (but not for use in fasteners with <15mm diameter male thread).
7) Magnesium alloys.
8 ) Nickel based alloys containing 50% < Ni < 69%.
9) Tungsten alloy.
10) Thermoplastics : monolithic, particulate filled, short fibre reinforced.
11) Thermosets : monolithic, particulate filled, short fibre reinforced.
12) Carbon fibres manufactured from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor.(*)
13) Carbon fibres manufactured from polyacrylonitrile (PAN) precursor which have :
- A tensile modulus ≤ 550GPa.
- A density ≤ 1.92 g/cm3.
- Unidirectional or planar reinforcement within their pre-impregnated form, not including three dimensional weaves or stitched fabrics (but three dimensional preforms and fibre reinforcement using Z-pinning technology are permitted).
- No carbon nanotubes incorporated within the fibre or its matrix.
- A permitted matrix, not including a carbon matrix.
14) Aramid fibres.
15) Poly(p-phenylene benzobisoxazole) fibres (e.g. “Zylon”).
16) Polyethylene fibres.
17) Polypropylene fibres.
18) E and S Glass fibres.
19) Sandwich panel cores: Aluminium, Nomex, polymer foams, syntactic foams, balsa wood, carbon foam.
20) The matrix system utilised in all pre-impregnated materials must be epoxy, cyanate ester, phenolic, bismaleimide, polyurethane, polyester or polyimide based. (*)
21) The matrix system utilised in all pre-impregnated materials must be epoxy, cyanate ester or bismaleimide based.
22) Monolithic ceramics.
Specifically banned are the following under 5.16.1 of the FIA 2012 regs:
Unless explicitly permitted for a specific engine component, the following materials may not be used anywhere on the engine:
a) Magnesium based alloys.
b) Metal Matrix Composites (MMC’s).
c) Intermetallic materials.
d) Alloys containing more than 5% by weight of Beryllium, Iridium or Rhenium.
And also under 15.1.2 of the FIA regs:
No parts of the car may be made from metallic materials which have a specific modulus of elasticity greater than 40GPa / (g/cm3). Tests to establish conformity will be carried out in accordance with FIA Test Procedure 03/02, a copy of which may be found in the Appendix to these regulations.
