Stress Analysis of Composite Gear Shifting Lever by Finite Element Method

Abstract

An attempt has been made in the present investigation to find out the suitability of using teakwood, and natural fibre reinforced polymer composites made by utilizing the waste like wood dust in a Tata Sumo car Gear shifting lever. Finite element method has been used to find out the various stresses responsible for failure of the lever at maximum load. Solid Modelling has been done by using CATIA software Ver.5 and stress analysis is carried out using ANSYS Ver-R14.5 finite element package. Three different types of composites of teak wood dust in 10, 15 and 20 weight percentages in epoxy matrix are examined along with pure steel and pure teak wood levers. It is observed that stresses developed are much less to the theoretical calculated values of the composites so also the data available for steel and teakwood. Further the composite with 10% teak wood dust may be the best material out of all the composites under consideration as the equivalent stress and shear stresses responsible for failure are much less in comparison to other composites.