Fatigue Analysis of an Automobile Wheel Rim

SOLVED WITH COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS 3.5a

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Fatigue Analysis of an Automobile Whe el Rim

Introduction
When designing a lightweight rim for a car it is of utmost importance to avoid fatigue failure. A number of fatigue tests can be performed in order to ascertain that the rim will not fail. Resorting only to tests, however, leads to large costs for prototype tools and a long development cycle, which is easy to avoid by simulating the testing procedure. One such test is rolling fatigue. The wheel is pressed against a rotating drum with a force that is given by the intended capacity of the wheel. During one revolution of the wheel, each material point experiences a complex stress history, which adds one cycle to the fatigue damage.

Note: This model requires MATLAB.

Model Definition
The wheel rim for this analysis is a ten-spoke example where the design elements of the geometry cause the finite element mesh to become quite large. To reduce the size of the problem, use an iterative solver and make use of symmetry while modeling. The loading on the tire is composed of both the tire pressure and a rotating load (drum load) transferred from the tire to the rim. In this case, only the geometry is symmetric, while the loading (which moves) is not. Because the problem is linear, superposition

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

of load cases is possible. Any load on a symmetric structure can be separated into one symmetric and one antisymmetric load, as the following figure illustrates.
Symmetric load case P/2 Antisymmetric load case P/2 P Applied load

P/2 P/2

-P/2

Symmetry plane

P/2

P/2

-P/2

Figure 1: Superposition of symmetric and antisymmetric load cases to obtain the stress distribution for a load applied in two locations. For an applied load at a certain position you can solve the model using one half of the geometry with symmetric and antisymmetric boundary conditions, respectively. Adding and subtracting the solution from these load cases results in the stress distribution for a load applied in two symmetric positions, as outlined in Figure 1. In the analysis you study the problem in a coordinate system fixed to the wheel rim, where the load rotates around the wheel. Assume that the load on the rim extends 30 in each direction from the point of contact. It is reasonable to analyze the stress distribution with the point of contact evenly spread out at ten locations around the

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

rim. For the modeled half of the geometry this is equivalent to six load positions with 36 interval between them as shown in the following figure.

108 144

72 36

180

You can model the moving load by letting the parametric solver step through the parameter values, which you can then use in the load expression to control its location and distribution. Use Table 1 and Table 2 to find each load case by its parameter value and load angle. Combine the load cases according to Table 3 to calculate the stress distribution for load positions around the entire wheel. The designations used in the Combination column correspond to load cases listed in Table 1 and Table 2.
TABLE 1: SYMMETRIC LOAD CASES PARAMETER VALUE DESCRIPTION DESIGNATION

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Drum load 0o Drum load 36 Drum load 72

o o

sd1 sd2 sd3 sd4 sd5 sd6 st7

o o

Drum load 108o Drum load 144 Drum load 180 Tire pressure

TABLE 2: ANTISYMMETRIC LOAD CASES PARAMETER VALUE DESCRIPTION DESIGNATION

2 3 4 5

Drum load 36o Drum load 72

o

ad2 ad3 ad4 ad5

o

Drum load 108o Drum load 144

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

TABLE 3: COMBINED LOAD CASES PARAMETER VALUE DESCRIPTION COMBINATION

0 36 72 108 144 180 216 252 288 324

MATERIAL

Tire pressure + Drum load 0o Tire pressure + Drum load 36

o

st7 + sd1 st7 + (sd2 + ad2)/2 st7 + (sd3 + ad3)/2

o o o

Tire pressure + Drum load 72o Tire pressure + Drum load 108 Tire pressure + Drum load 144 Tire pressure + Drum load 180 Tire pressure + Drum load 252 Tire pressure + Drum load 288 Tire pressure + Drum load 324

st7 + (sd4 + ad4)/2 st7 + (sd5 + ad5)/2 st7 + sd6 st7 + (sd5 - ad5)/2 st7 + (sd4 - ad4)/2 st7 + (sd3 - ad3)/2 st7 + (sd2 - ad2)/2

Tire pressure + Drum load 216o

o o o

Elastic data: Isotropic with E = 70 GPa, = 0.33. Fatigue data: The fatigue limit is known for two cases with pure axial loading. For pure tension it is 95 MPa, and for fully reversed loading it is 125 MPa. This gives the Findley parameters f = 84 MPa and k = 0.30 if Equation 13-16 in the Structural Mechanics Module Users Guide is applied.
CONSTRAINTS

A region around each bolt hole is fixed.

Fixed boundary condition

Symmetric or antisymmetric boundary condition

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

 Symmetric load cases: Symmetry condition (normal displacement fixed) in the symmetry plane. Antisymmetric load cases: Antisymmetry condition (transverse displacement fixed) in the symmetry plane.
LOADS

Tire pressure: The overpressure is 2 bar = 200 kPa. Rotating drum load: The total load carried by the wheel corresponds to a weight of 1120 kg. It is applied as a pressure on the rim surfaces where the tire is in contact. Assume that the load distribution in the circumferential direction can be approximated as p = p0cos( 3 ), where is the angle from the point of contact between the drum and the tire. The loaded area thus extends 30 in each direction. The parameter ksolv in the following expression is used to control the location of the load: y ( 2 k solv 7 ) - -------------------------------- p = p 0 ( k solv < 6 ) cos 3 atan - x 10 ( 3 k solv 13 ) ( 3 k solv 8 ) y y - < ------------------------------------ > ------------------------------- atan - atan - x 15 x 15
Tire pressure

Rotating tire load

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

THE FINITE ELEMENT MESH

Mesh the rim surface with a fine mesh to resolve all the details, and to avoid inverted and linearized elements, which may influence the fatigue analysis. The final finite-element mesh consists of approximately 310,000 tetrahedral elements, giving a total number of approximately 1,500,000 degrees of freedom.

Results and Discussion

Figure 2 shows the von Mises stress for one of the combined load cases with the point of contact for the drum load located at 144, illustrating the region for where the rim experiences the maximum stresses.

Figure 2: von Mises stress distribution for the combined loading with the rotating drum load at 144. The computed fatigue utilization factor is shown in Figure 3. The maximum value is 0.717. As you can see the critical regions are on the inside where the spokes connect to the mid part of the rim. When comparing with the stress plot in Figure 2, note that high stresses will not always lead to a high utilization factor. This is the case for the two edges that run around the rim holding the tire in place.

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

Figure 3: Distribution of the fatigue utilization factor. By looking at the plot in Figure 4 you can understand the nonproportional nature of the stress history. Here you can see how the components of the stress tensor change at the most critical point as the load rotates around the wheel. For proportional loading

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM

there would only be a scale difference between the curves. But in this case principal directions of the stress tensor change with each step.

Figure 4: Stress history at the location with the highest fatigue utilization factor.

Modeling in COMSOL Multiphysics

Build and solve two models, the first one containing the symmetric load cases with the pressure load and the second one containing the antisymmetric load cases. To superpose the symmetric and antisymmetric load cases, export the FEM structures from these two models to MATLAB, where you can extract and add the solution vectors. Perform the fatigue analysis using MATLAB, where you can run scripts that analyze the total stress distribution stored in the FEM structures.

FATIGUE ANALYSIS OF AN AUTOMOBILE WHEEL RIM