Numerical prediction of cornering fatigue test of low alloy wheels

Keywords: Cornering fatigue test, fatigue, critical plane damage model notched, finite element method Wheels are critical component in automotive industry because they are exposed to variable stresses under static and dynamic forces. Many tests determined by automotive and wheel manufacturers, apply to designed wheel models. Cornering fatigue test is one of the fatigue tests in which crack failures were investigated after definite cycles under dynamic loads. Most of the tests apply to end product wheel. Test procedures take a long time. The modifications in wheel design depending on the test results, requires doing production process again. This repetitive process increases the prime cost. Numerical modelling of test gives quick solutions on a particular design. Thus, number of cyclic tests is decreased because of numerical modelling. Therefore, numerical modelling indirectly decreases the prime coast. A numerical model of the cornering fatigue test was created in this study. First of all, the numerical model of the cornering fatigue test was performed to determine the local strain and stress information of wheel by using the finite element model. The local stress data were used to determine critical regions on wheel by using critical plane damage model and strain-life prediction. Thus, the numbers of cycles were predicted for these critical regions. Numerical model of cornering fatigue test were demonstrated in an application. The critical regions of wheel were determined and the numbers of cycles of these regions were predicted for a particular wheel model.