Research On Structure Optimization And Molding Process Of Polyethylene Plastic Road Wheel

Road wheels are the main load-bearing parts of tracked vehicles,which are used in large quantities and account for a large proportion of mass.Therefore,the lightweight of road wheels is the key to reducing the quality of tracked vehicles,and has an important impact on improving the maneuverability of tracked vehicles.Existing road wheels are mostly made of metal materials.Due to the high density of metal materials and limited lightness,in order to minimize the weight of road wheels,this article uses ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene(UHMWPE)engineering plastics as the matrix.,Designed a plastic-aluminum alloy composite wheel structure,and used ABAQUS to conduct topology optimization design and mechanical performance analysis of the road wheel structure,and realized the lightweight design of the road wheel;at the same time,carried out the research on the compression molding process of the road wheel,Obtained the main process parameters of plastic-metal compression molding.The main research contents of this paper are as follows:1.Research on statics simulation of road wheels.Based on the operating environment of the tracked vehicle,this paper selects four typical working conditions,namely static load condition,maximum tilt condition,trench crossing condition,and steering condition,to complete the load analysis,load calculation,and restraint setting of the road wheel.The initial structure of the plastic-aluminum road wheel was simulated using ABAQUS,and the results showed that the stress and displacement response of the trench-crossing condition was the largest,with the maximum stress ?_max =9.027 MPa and the maximum displacement U_max=1.668 mm.2.Lightweight design of road wheel structure.The parametric model of the initial structure of the road wheel was established using NX10.0 software,and the hexahedral mesh model of the road wheel was established in conjunction with the Hyper Mesh software;the mesh model was imported into the ABAQUS analysis software to complete the topology optimization analysis of the road wheel structure,and the load was obtained.The topological optimization shape of the wheel,and the manufacturability of the road wheel was completed according to this shape,and the optimized structure of the road wheel was obtained;and the static simulation test was carried out for the optimized road wheel structure.The result showed: the working condition of the trench The maximum stress,?_max=14.4MPa,U_max=3.305 mm,meets the design requirements;from the perspective of lightweight analysis,a single road wheel can reduce weight by 1.2kg,and the weight reduction rate is 13.6%.3.Research on technical parameters of road wheel forming.Combining the size of road wheels and the molding characteristics of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene plastics,the compression molding method is adopted to design the road wheel molding process;the road wheel molding is designed based on the tensile strength and elongation at break of the road wheel.The orthogonal test of the process analyzed the influence of the main molding process parameters on the mechanical properties of the road wheel,and obtained the best combination of process parameters for the road wheel compression molding: the molding temperature is 240?,the molding pressure is 18 MPa,and the molding time is 2.5h.4.Road wheel performance test and loading and driving test.Based on the obtained road wheel optimized structure and molding process parameters,a road wheel sample was manufactured,and samples were taken from the sample body to test the mechanical properties of the road wheel and verify the reliability of the road wheel structure and molding process;In the environment,the loading and driving test was carried out on the road wheels.Within the design mileage of 6000 km,the road wheels did not show defects such as cracks,dents,bright scars,metal bushings and plastic loosening,which met the design requirements.