Lightening and cooling of wheel hubs in vehicles using aluminum material

Wheel systems in automobiles and commercial vehicles are usually designed as one-piece or modular components and consist of basic parts such as Hub, Knuckle, Bearings and Wheel. Common materials used in these systems include cast iron, mild steel, aluminum alloys, nodular cast iron (ductile iron) and steel spokes. This study involves the investigation and analysis of the wheel hubs used in commercial vehicles using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for the lightweighting of the wheel hubs using lightweight metals and innovative designs. In this study, it is aimed to reduce the total weight of the wheel assembly by using Aluminum and GG30 casting material. The lightweight hub and wheel assembly will reduce inertia, which is the work done to move or stop the vehicle. Accordingly, in the first analysis of the hub, the behavior of the hub in the -x direction under a total load of 120 kN was simulated. In the second analysis, torque was applied to certain regions as a boundary condition. As a result of the analysis, it was recommended to use aluminum for the wheel hub, and by performing engineering analysis with appropriate design, a reliable reduction in weight was obtained and thus aluminum was made as usable material for wheel hubs. The deformation of the aluminum material hub is higher than that of the GG30 cast hub, but it has not passed into the plastic region. Keywords: Wheel hub, Finite element analysis, Lightweight design, Aluminum wheel, Structure optimization