Astm A227

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 5
At a glance
Powered by AI
The paper analyzes the stress distribution of a helical coil compression spring used in the front suspension of a three-wheeled vehicle using finite element analysis.

The paper analyzes the stress distribution of a helical coil compression spring used in the front suspension of a three-wheeled vehicle.

Finite element analysis is used to model and analyze the spring.

ISBN: 978-93-81693-89-6

Finite Element Analysis of Helical Coil Compression Spring for Three Wheeler Automotive Front Suspension

Tausif M. Mulla1, Sunil J. Kadam2, Vaibhav S. Kengar3 M.E. Design, Mech. Engg, Rajarambapu Institute of Technology, Islampur, Dist-Sangli ;2M.E. CAD/CAM, Mech. Engg, Bharati Vidyapeeths College of Engineering, Kolhapur; 3 Mech. Engg, Bharati Vidyapeeths College of Engineering, Kolhapur (Maharashtra, India). tausifultimate@yahoo.co.in, s.kad@rediffmail.com, vaibhavkengar@gmail.com
1

Abstract: The current paper deals with the stress analysis of a helical coil compression spring, which is employed in three wheelers auto-rickshaw belonging to the medium segment of the Indian automotive market. In the design of this kind of spring both the elastic characteristics and the fatigue strength have to be considered as significant aspects. In addition to this particular elastic property, as a consequence of the research effort in reducing the mass of components typical of the automotive industry, these springs have to face very high working stresses. The structural reliability of the spring must therefore be ensured. So for this purpose the static stress analysis using finite element method has been done in order to find out the detailed stress distribution of the spring. Keywords- Helical Coil Compression Spring, Finite Element Analysis, Fatigue Strength

1.

INTRODUCTION

Three-Wheeled Vehicles (TWVs) form an essential part of public transport for the urban middle class population of India. Apart from India, TWVs are also being used world over for public transport and for carrying freight. The suspension system for such three wheelers vehicles is very poor as concerned with the ride comfort of the passengers. Relatively higher centre of gravity, the lack of differential for the driving rear axle have been cited as contributors to rollovers and pitching. This also adds the discomfort to passengers. Very few publications evaluate the performance of TWVs in everyday use for mass transportation. Nowadays the trend in the industries is moving towards the weight reduction in every component and springs are also not exempted. Over the country side roads where these TWVs are widely used for carrying freight, the stress levels in the springs go high. As helical coil compression springs are one of the main parts of the suspension system, it becomes quite necessary to do the complete stress analysis of the spring. As these springs undergo the fluctuating loading over the service life, it becomes essential to find out the fatigue limit of the same.

Mechanical spring is defined as an elastic body that has the primary function to deflect or distort under load, and to return to its original shape when the load is removed. First step in the design of spring in general, is to determine the loads and the deflections required for a given spring application depending upon the type of the loading. In addition to this tentative selection of the material must be made. In case of the most general approach for the spring design, the maximum stress in the spring wire may be computed by superposition of direct shear and the torsional shear stress. To design the helical coil compression spring for small pitch angle, a very common approach called as approximate theory considering direct shear and effect of curvature is referenced here.[1] The assumption is that an element of an axially loaded helical spring behaves as a straight bar in pure torsion. If P be the load acting axially on the spring, d is the diameter of the spring wire, D is the mean diameter of the coil, and then forces acting on the element are resolved into a twisting moment /2, acting in a radial plane and a direct axial shearing force P. The stresses set up by the twisting moment are considered first and then superimposed on the stresses due to the direct shear. But the maximum shear stress

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering 129

Finite Element Analysis A of Helic cal Coil Compression Spring for Three T Wheeler Au utomotive Front Suspension S

occurs at the t inner side e of the coi il and may be b considerably y higher than the t stress given n by elementa ary theory by an n amount depen nding on the sp pring index. Th he reason for th his is the short t fiber length at the inn ner side of the co oil as shown in n the figure 1. Thus T if the radi ial sections and rotate e through an an ngle with respe ect to each other r about spring g axis, the inne er fiber w will be subjected d to much hig gher stress and d shearing stra ain than outside fiber . Also at the inner r side of the co oil, ess due to the direct axial loa ad P added such the shear stre , at this poin that it produ uce the torque e moment nt. Thus the stre ess range at inn ner side of the coil is normal lly much higher r than elsewhe ere and for thi is reason fatigu ue failure generally starts at this reg gion. Therefo ore hear stress at th he inside of the e coil given by maximum sh Eq.1 where Eq.2

te results. Ho owever, with a higher num mber of accurat elemen nts and nonlinearity due to the t contact be etween a coil sp pring and its seats, or betwe een the coil an nd itself, each an nalysis could take t hours to ru un. While the accuracy a of the result r is impor rtant, the comp putational time must be reasonable to incorpo orate FEA into coil spring de esign. To e lengthy comp putational time e in a solid model, a 3resolve D beam m element is often o selected to t model a coi il spring and seats. Since the t deformatio on of a sea at under ession is very y minimal and d can be igno ored, the compre materia al properties of o seats are set t very high to act as a rigid body. b Contact between b a coil l and seat, or between b the coi il and itself, is s detected by gap elements or rigid elemen nts.

E 1 Eq.

E 2 Eq.

a Wahls fact tor used for co onsidering stre ess K is called as correction be ecause of curv vature effect an nd C is called as spring index x. Form this it is clear that spring s index has h straight impa act on the stres ss distribution. . Stress obtained by these form mulae can be cross c checked by b finite eleme ent method for better b understan nding of the str ress distributio on. The deflectio on is given by formula f Eq.3 where G is the shear mod dulus of mater rial and N is th he ctive coils in th he spring.[1] number of ac 2. FINITE E ELEMENT ANALYSIS E 3 Eq.

A primary re eason to use FE EA in coil spri ing design is th he ability to re educe error ca aused by the simplification s of equations, mainly m concern ning the pitch angle. An FEA Abased design n begins with the selection of the eleme ent type, how the model should d be constructe ed, how accura ate hould be, and how h fast the model m should ru un. the results sh The most accurate a FEA results can be obtained by b creating 3-D D parts of a coil l spring and its s seats, followed by meshing the parts wit th a 3-D solid d element. Fin ner th higher-order r elements wil ll produce mo ore meshing wit

Figure e 1- Elemental Section of Hel lical Coil Comp pression Spring [1]

Internationa al Conference on n Mechanical and Industrial Engine eering 130

Finite Element Analysis of Helical Coil Compression Spring for Three Wheeler Automotive Front Suspension

Geometry and Material Properties Detailed specifications of the spring under consideration are given in the table 1. This spring is used in the TWVs front suspension. Spring is made up of ASTM A227 material with squares and grounded ends. The material properties are given in the table 2. This spring had undergone hardening process with oil quenching and followed by the stress relieving treatment at 400 Degree Celsius for 25 minutes. Then shot peening has been done after some time with ball size of 2 mm for good surface finish. Wire Diameter, d Outer Diameter, Do Inner Diameter, Di Mean Diameter, Dm or D No of Active Turns, Na No of Total Turns, Nt Free Length, l0 Solid Length, ls Spring Index, C 8.0 54.0 38.0 46.0 10.0 12.0 195.0 96.0 5.75 mm mm mm mm

element is used for the Tet-Meshing. In the second case the spring was modeled with element SOLID95/SOLID186. This is used for 3-D modeling of solid structures having 20 nodes. It can tolerate irregular shapes without as much loss of accuracy. SOLID186 elements have compatible displacement shapes and are well suited to model curved boundaries. It is defined by eight nodes having three degrees of freedom at each node: translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions. This element is used for Hexmeshing.

mm mm

Table 1-Spring Specifications The effect of residual stresses has been neglected in this analysis. A basic solid model of the spring is made in the Pro-E Wildfire 4 software as shown in figure 2 (A). The spring seats are not modeled in this analysis and contact of seats with spring surface is considered as rigid body. Modulus of Elasticity, E Poisson's Ratio, Shear Modulus, G 196.50 0.250 78.60 GPa (A) GPa

Table 2-Material Properties of ASTM A227 Spring Steel [2] Element Type and Mesh Convergence Criteria ANSYS 13.0 is the software used for the pre and post processing. This spring is meshed with different elements and different meshing types and then comparative study has been done in order to find out the convergence criteria. At first the spring was meshed with element SOLID187. This element is a higher order 3-dimentional, 10-node element. SOLID187 has a quadratic displacement behavior and is well suited to modeling irregular meshes (such as those produced from various CAD/CAM systems). The element is defined by 10 nodes having three degrees of freedom at each node: translations in the nodal x, y, and z directions. This

(B) Figure 2- Solid Model (A) and FEM Model (B) with Tet Mesh (SOLID 187)

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering 131

Finite Element Analysis of Helical Coil Compression Spring for Three Wheeler Automotive Front Suspension

Mesh study is performed on the FE model to ensure sufficiently fine sizes are employed for accuracy of calculated results but at competitive cost (CPU time). In the process, the shear stress is the specified field variable is selected and its convergence is monitored and evaluated. Selecting the right techniques of meshing are based on the geometry, model topology, analysis objectives. Tetrahedral meshing produces high quality meshing for boundary representation solids model imported from the most CAD system. After testing the spring model for different element sizes with above elements SOLID187 and SOLID 186 one by one it was seen that smaller mesh size captures the higher stress value. The element SOLID187 with Tet Mesh is shown in figure 2 (B). But smaller element size less than 2 mm for both the types of elements was not implemented because it creates the large number of nodes and it requires comparatively too much time and space for the storage and calculation for the computer. Then for different meshing options, comparing the accuracy of the solution and time required for the same; the most effective FEM model obtained when compared with the theoretical value of the stress counter of maximum shear stress obtained by using Wahls Equation. The stress counter for the load of 167 kg or 1638.27 N having theoretical value about 474.08 N/Sq.mm is compared with different element sizes is shown in figure 3. Tet-Mesh (SOLID 187) with element size 2 mm and refined at inner side of the coil at level one is the most converging model with the theoretical values.

Loading Conditions As this spring is used in the TWVs front suspension it is necessary to find out the load acting on the spring in actual practice in static condition as well as in dynamic condition. Normally total weight of the vehicle with driver and one passenger is about 405 Kg, but for safer side it is taken as 500 Kg concentrated at the center of gravity of the vehicle. It is assumed that this total weight is equally divided into two springs of rear suspension and one spring of front suspension. So the front suspension spring is experiencing approximately 167 Kg load. This load is modeled in the analysis with the help of mass element. Then rigid body constraint equations are applied for giving contact between this element and the surface elements of the spring on upper side. Static Stress Analysis The linear static analysis was performed to determine the stress and strain results from the finite element model. The material utilized in this work consists of a linear elastic, isotropic material. The choice of the linear elastic material model is essentially mandated. Model loading consist of the applied mechanical load, which is modeled as the load control and the displacement control. From the analysis, the inner side of the coil is found to experience the largest stresses. The maximum shear stress distribution of the coil spring is shown in figure 4. From the result, the maximum shear stress of value 467.664 N/sq. mm in xy plane occurred at nodes on inner side of the every coil. Figure 5 shows the effect of load on the shear stress obtained by FEM.

Figure 3- Comparison of Different Meshing Types

Figure 4-Shear Stress Counter

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering 132

Finite Element Analysis of Helical Coil Compression Spring for Three Wheeler Automotive Front Suspension

Figure 5-Eq. Von Mises Stress Counter

EffectofLoadontheShearStress
MaxShear StressN/Sq. mm

1200.00 1000.00 800.00 600.00 400.00 200.00 0.00 0.0 1000.0 2000.0 LoadN 3000.0 4000.0 Theoretical TetSolid187 HexSolid186

REFERENCES [1]. Wahl A. M., Mechanical Springs, Second Edition, McGraw Hill Inc., 1963. [2]. Shigley J. E., Mischke C. R., Mechanical Engineering Design, Fifth Edition, McGraw Hill Inc., 1989. [3]. Prawoto Y., Ikeda M., Manville S. K. and Nishikawa A., Failure analysis of automotive suspension coil springs, Association for Iron & Steel Technology Proceedings, pp 35-48, 2008. [4]. Dojoong Kim, Development of a finite element program for dynamic analysis of helical springs, Mechanics, Korus, pp309-314, 1999. [5]. Jiang W. J., Henshall J. L., A novel finite element model for helical spring, Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, Vol. 35, pp 363-377, 2000. [6]. Forrester Merville K., Stiffness model of die spring, M.S. Thesis, Virginia University, 2001. [7]. Berger C., Kaiser B., Result of very high cycle fatigue tests on helical compression springs, International Journal of Fatigue, Vol. 28, pp 16581663, 2006. [8]. Al-Mahasne Mayas, Abu Shreehah Tareq A., Experimental Investigation of polymeric compound cross section spring, American Journal of Applied Sciences, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp 3336, 2007.

Figure 5-Load Vs Shear Stress Effect on Spring 1. CONCLUSION

The elastic behavior and the stress analysis of springs employed in the TWVs front automotive suspension have been presented and discussed in this paper. The results obtained by a fully 3D FE analysis also highlighted the poor accuracy that can be provided by the classical spring model when dealing with these spring geometries. Relative errors on maximum shear stress ranging from 1.5 to 4 per cent, with reference to the applied loads, obtained when compared with the values calculated by using simple analytical model which is found in textbooks. The stress distribution clearly shows that the shear stress is having maximum value at the inner side of the every coil. The distribution of the stress is similar in every coil. So the probability of failure of spring in every coil is same except end turns. In such case residual stress in every coil may be important factor which influence the failure.

International Conference on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering 133

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy