- Title
- Strain behaviour of an eco-car wheel rim designed through topology and composite layup optimization
- Creator
- Badenhorst, Martin Wessel
- Subject
- Wheels -- Design and construction Mechanical engineering
- Date Issued
- 2017
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MEng
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/16066
- Identifier
- vital:28317
- Description
- This research aimed to reduce the mass of a purpose built eco-car wheel through the sequential use of structural topology and composites optimization software packages while investigating the changes in mass and strain behaviour resulting from altering component geometry, lamina shape, and stacking sequence. The strain behaviour of a commercially available wheel constructed using pre-tensioned steel spokes was established through the comparison of measured physical and FEA strains resulting from applied pressure, radial, lateral, torsional, and combined loads. Structural topology optimization software was then utilized to produce 48 different wheel geometries corresponding to a combined loading scenario consisting of pressure, radial, and lateral loads. The variables controlled during this process included the objective optimization function, safety factor, target design volume, split-draw constraint, and degrees of cyclic symmetry. The optimum geometry was determined by means of evaluating specific stiffness and potential towards being manufactured as a composite component. Three composite wheel FEA base models, with uni-directional laminae stacked at different fibre orientation intervals, were created according to this geometry and lightened by means of composite free size optimization. Composite sizing and shuffling optimizations were then utilized to further enhance the mass and strain characteristics of the lightest of these three solutions Two composite wheels were manufactured according to the wheel geometry, lamina shapes, and stacking sequences determined by means of structural topology and composites ptimizations. The physical mass and strain behaviour of these wheels were measured and compared to those corresponding to the optimized FEA model, as well as the commercially available wheel. This comparison showed that structural topology and composites optimization software packages can be sequentially utilized to produce an adequately stiff composite wheel of lower mass than a commercially available wheel constructed using pre-tensioned steel spokes.
- Format
- xxv, 175 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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