The Finite Element Analysis Of Stress Strength And Vibration Of The Automotive Drive Axle Housing

As the mainly load-bearing and force-transmitting component of the vehicle, the automotive drive axle housing bears the weight of vehicle and transfers the force to the wheel. By the drive axle housing, the traction force, braking force and lateral force acted on the wheel are transferred to the suspension system, frame or carriage. According to the experience and the vibration theory, the crash of the axle housing is induced by the pulse of the road surface roughness and the complex forces from the different hard work condition.Because the driving condition of the vehicle is very complex, the strength and dynamic performance of the drive axle housing affect the operation safety of the vehicle. The reasonable design of the drive housing is one of the importance ways to improve the ride comfort. Thus, it is necessary to analyze the strength, rigidity and dynamic performance of the drive axle housing.Based on the static and dynamic theory of the finite element method, the axle housing of one medium duty truck is analyzed by the FEM software MSC.Patran/Nastran in this paper. Firstly, the 3-D model of axle housing is established in MSC.Patran. Then, the model is analyzed by MSC.Nastran. The stress distribution and deformation in four typical loading cases are evaluated in the static analysis, in which the drive axle housing bears the maximum vertical force, the maximum traction force, the maximum braking force and the maximum lateral force. The first twelve natural frequencies and modes under the free constraint are obtained in the modal analysis.The analysis results of the finite element method show that the maximum Mises stress of the axle housing is less than the allowable stress value. So the axle housing meets the strength requirement. The maximum deformation per meter of the wheel-center-distance is less than 1.5mm/m, which meets the stiffness requirements in national standards. The minimum natural frequency calculated by FEM is far bigger than the frequency from road excitation. The resonance of the axle housing won't happen when this truck is traveling on road. The analyzed results tell us that the axle housing is safe and reliable under all kinds of driving conditions.According to the stress distribution and deformation character of the axle housing, some weight of the axle housing could be reduced properly to improve the utilization of the materials and meet the requirement of the light-weight design.