DESIGN, ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF WHEEL RIMS MADE OF AL ALLOY (AlSi7Mg) AND CARBON EPOXY USING CATIA AND ANSYS

Abstract

The purpose of car wheel rim provides a firm base on which to fit the tire. Its dimensions, shape should be suitable adequately accommodate a particular tire required for the vehicle. The wheel rim plays a major role in the unsprung weight of a vehicle. By improving the unsprung weight, the dynamics of a vehicle can be improved to a large extent. There is considerable scope to improve the design of the wheels. Different type of wheel bodies available today are steel aluminum, magnesium, titanium alloys. In regular commercial vehicles, steel wheels are generally used. A few performance vehicles have employed the use of carbon fiber and composite materials. A light weight material is considered because it enhances the wheel’s response on braking and acceleration because of the decrease in the rotational weight of the vehicle. By reducing the usprung weight more precise steering and increase in fuel efficiencycan be achieved. By using CATIA, a three dimensional wheel rim model is designed and imported to ANSYS Workbench 1 for analysis. The fundamental thing is to perform a stress analysis of wheel by considering the loads acting on it. In this paper analyzis is done for Al Alloy (AlSi7Mg) and carbon epoxy material and the results are compared for optimization.