Structural Optimization And Fatigue Analysis For Lightweight Design Of Vehicle Differential Case

In the advanced technological era,lightweight design for fuel efficiency and environmental protection are the compulsory aspects in conventional and hybrid electric vehicles(HEV's).Additionally,durability is another valuable need for safe driving.The reduction of structural mass plays a vital role in decreasing the weight of the full vehicle.The scope of this paper is to describe design methodologies for the differential case of a vehicle applied to achieve light weight and to maximize product life.The focus of this paper revolves around two tasks.First,the topology optimization of a differential case of a vehicle.Therefore,beginning with optimization,finite element analysis is used to generate the stress with contact constraint.In topology optimization method,optimization parameters(design variable,responses,objective function and constraint)are applied for the design of lightweight of differential case of a vehicle.The optimization results revealed that the topology optimization method successfully achieved the lightweight design of differential case and this design method can be utilized in the differential case of the vehicle.Furthermore,the second task is the fatigue analysis.Usually,fatigue analysis is used during the design phase to dictate the prediction of future component failure.It is expected that this work will be helpful for reducing the costs and enlargement of product life.