Fatigue Life Analysis Of Loader Drive Axle Housing With Finite Element Method

Loader is one of the most widely used construction machinery products for loading and unloading transportation and mild excavation,due to its strong mobility and fast operation speed abilities.Besides,in the loader,the drive axle maybe is one of the most important component.On the one hand,it will undertake the total weight of the loader,and transmit the torque and revolving speed from the transmission shaft.On the other hand,it also need to withstand the impact loads resulting from the interactions between the driving wheel and the uneven road surfaces.Therefore,the working status of the drive axle plays an important role in the dynamic performance of the loader.In order to keep the loader staying in a safe and steady condition,research about the static and fatigue life of the drive axle housing is necessary and useful.The present work is motivated from the cooperation project between Jilin University and XX Group about “the finite element static analysis and fatigue life analysis of the loader drive axle”.Considering the drive axle housing of the loader weighing six tons,Pro/E,known as the famous three-dimensional(3D)CAD software,is used to construct the model for the drive bridge axle shell.Then,the Pro/E is employed to build its corresponding finite element(FE)model up.This is followed by a series of simulations(static strength and static stiffness analysis)in the ANSYS software according to the corresponding test standards and actual load conditions.By analyzing the displacement and stress cloud diagrams of each part of the driven axle housing,the locations of the dangerous sections are obtained.At last,the fatigue life of the loader drive axle housing is carried out in the nCode Desighlife software.Both the load spectrum compiled from the load regulations of fatigue test and the Miner’s linear fatigue damage accumulation theory are referred in this work.The obtained fatigue life curve of the above dangerous sections can help to predict the service life of the driven axle housing well.In general,the static analysis and fatigue life analysis of the 6-ton loader integral drive axle can lay a foundation for the optimal design of the drive axle housing,as well as its anti-fatigue design of other parts of the loader.