An Al Motorcycle Wheel Design Based On Mandatory Testing Standard

Wheels are important safety and duty components of motorcycles, their design directly affect the driving safety and comfort of the vehicle. Due to the limit of original design capacity, the wheel design of Chinese motorcycles is more likely rely on reverse design.This paper, the 3-D model of a motorcycle aluminum alloy wheel was established by CATIA software, the radial load test, flexural fatigue test and torsional load test were simulated by ANSYS WORKBENCH software, the structural optimization for wheel was also conducted, the radial impact test was analyzed by ANSYS/LS-DYNA software, in accordance with the national standard of "Light-alloy Wheels for Motorcycles and Mopeds", the radial impact test was conducted. The results obtained are as follows:①In accordance with the radial load mandatory test requirements, a maximum stress of 73 MPa was determined in the wheel subjected to a 0.28 MPa tyre pressure and a 3420 N radial fatigue load, the wheel enjoys a radial fatigue safety coefficient of 2.0 instead of the allowable safety coefficient 1.5, indicating that the structure strength meets the requirement.②In accordance with the flexural fatigue mandatory test requirements, a maximum stress of 93 MPa was determined in the wheel with one side of the felly edge fixed and subjected to a 211N· m bending moment at the end of 284 mm loading arm, predicting a flexural fatigue life of 4.23 million cycles, which is considerably higher than the specified 0.1 million cycles and indicates that the structure strength meets the requirement.③In accordance with the torsional load mandatory test requirements, a maximum stress of 85 MPa was determined in the wheel with one side of the felly edge fixed and subjected to a 431.7 N· m torsional moment at the end of 284 mm loading arm, the wheel enjoys a torsional fatigue safety coefficient of 2.1 instead of the allowable safety coefficient 1.5, indicating that the structure strength meets the requirement.④The structural optimization was conducted to the wheel, a maximum stress of 90 MPa was obtained under the radial load test, the safety factor is 1.6. A maximum stress of 138 MPa was obtained under the flexural fatigue test, the safety factor is 1.3. A maximum stress of 97 MPa was obtained under the torsional load test, the safety factor is 1.8, which are all satisfy the allowable safety coefficient of material. The flexural fatigue life was predicted 0.77 million cycles, which is satisfying the specified 0.1 million cycles. The quality of wheel after optimization reduces 1.5Kg and decreased by 5.4%。⑤In accordance with the radial impact mandatory test requirements, a maximum stress of 199 MPa was determined in the wheel subjected to an impact from a 1520 N impact block with a speed of-1.709m/s at a position of 1mm from the top of the tyre. Compared with the yielding strength of the wheel ally of 225 MPa, the wheel should be free of fracturing or over deforming during the impact event.⑥After the radial impact test of wheel sample, the curves of the displacement, velocity, acceleration and kinetic about the impact block were obtained, the maximum displacement of the impact block is 31.5mm, the maximum velocity wheel impact block’s decline is-1.279mm/ms, the maximum velocity wheel impact block’s rebound is 0.247mm/ms, the variation trend of these curves are much fitting with the curves by simulation.