Stress Comparison of Aluminum Alloy Wheel for Cornering Load and Design Optimization by Experimental and Analytical Methods

Abstract

Automotive manufacturers have been developing safe, fuel-efficient, and newlinelightweight vehicle components to meet industrial standards. It is always a challenge to newlinestrike a balance between the weight of the car, its safety and fuel efficiency. The major newlinefocus is on the reduction in the weight of the car, mainly the unsprung weight, which is not newlinesupported by the vehicle`s suspension system. By reducing unsprung weight, less energy newlineis required to accelerate the vehicle which in turn reduces fuel consumption. The wheel is newlineone of the important components that share the unsprung weight of the car. It is an newlineimportant safety structural member of the vehicular suspension system that bears static and newlinedynamic loads encountered during vehicle operation. Style, weight, manufacturability, and newlineperformance are four major technical concerns related to the design of a new wheel for its newlineperformance. newlineTo evaluate wheel performance, durability tests are conducted as per the newlineinternational standards for radial, cornering, and impact loads. To assess the wheel newlineperformance at the design stage, researchers compared the results from finite element newlineanalysis with the experimental fatigue tests. The experimental fatigue test will give an newlineoverall life of the wheel for a series of tests performed for a constant loading throughout, newlinebut cannot help to understand the behavior of the stress within the wheel. Also, the cycle newlinetime for completion of the fatigue test is very high and number of samples to be tested is newlinealso large. A good wheel design is possible only if the overall stress within the wheel is newlineknown other than the critical locations. Overall stress distribution will allow the designer newlineto optimize the wheel by reducing the unwanted material at the low-stress zone and newlinestrengthening the wheel by adding material to the critical zones. newlineFrom the earlier research, experiments were performed to measure the strain at the newlinecritical locations of the wheel and correlate the results with finite element analysis.