Shape Optimization of Passenger Vehicle Wheel on Fatigue Failure

Abstract

Abstract. Based on the basic passenger vehicle steel wheel shape design, revised design was proposed to solve the common fatigue failure problems .Both basic and optimized design were modeled using Abaqus 3D software to calculate the stress and strain contours in the case of bending load and radial load. Consequently, fatigue life contours of models for each load case were calculated with the help of Brown-Miller biaxial fatigue theory. It was shown that, at the condition of unchanged wheel material and number of disc vents, optimized rim profile can extend fatigue life index of disc by 73.8% and 58.5% under bending load and radial load respectively. Meanwhile, the fatigue life index of rim could be extended by 17.5% and 134.4% under bending load and radial load respectively. IntroductionPassenger vehicle wheel is a critical component that bears the auto-body weight and load weight. Structural design is a vital part of the whole automobile industry to ensure that wheels work in the normal condition without earlier fatigue failure [1][2][3][4]. The safety and stability of an operating vehicle are largely attributed to superior stiffness, elastic property and fatigue performance. Several complex operating conditions are inevitably introduced while driving, which as a consequence possibly leads to the structural failure [1]. The failure modes of wheels are mainly divided into strength failure and fatigue failure, and above 80% are induced related to the latter mode [5][6]. Safety is always the primary consideration of current international advanced wheel design, highlighting the significance of the strength and fatigue life of the wheel [7][8].Fatigue fractureis a kind of typical high-cycle fatigue [1]. In consideration of the importance of fatigue life, previous work has taken special research in the fatigue testing machine [9]. With the rapid development of computer technology, CAD/CAE techniques are widely used in industrial design and manufacturing process [10,11]. Applying the simplified model without considering the effect of circumferential position variation of loads, stress-strain distribution and fatigue life of the wheel can be easily simulated with a computer, which considerably improves the efficiency of product design and reduces the development cost [12][13][14][15]. A precondition for using simulation technique to calculate the fatigue and optimize the structure is that a precise enough stress-strain distribution is required. Thus, in order to further improve the accuracy of the simulating calculation, this work has made improvements in the finite element modeling analysis process based on the previous research: 1. Assembly of a certain type of wheel and bolts has been modeled, with considering the effect of pretightening force, thus the calculation precision of regions near to the bolt holes has been enhanced; 2. Under the radial load condition, integral modeling of the wheel rim has been proposed, achieving the

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