Design, development and analysis of single wheel lab test setup using FEM

Abstract

A single-wheeled lab test setup with the dimension of the existing soil bin (30 m x 2.3m x 1.0) has been designed, analyzed and constructed for testing and comparing the performance of the tires. The main parts of the lab test setup include the mainframe, chassis, gearbox, 3- phase AC electric motor, counterbalancing unit, guide rails, and tire. Chassis is the most important part of the lab test setup which was designed in Creo parametric1.0 and analyzed in Creo simulation 1.0 using the static Finite element method (FEM). Chassis were kept loaded with a 10 kN Normal load. Results revealed that maximum von mises stress, displacement, and strain; developed on chassis was 237.5 MPa, 0.856 mm and 8.56×10-4 respectively. The chassis design was observed to be satisfactory for fabrication purposes. All the other components fabricated were mounted over the chassis and lab setup was completed. The electrical motor, motor speed controller and gearbox mounted over lab test setup provides variable rate forward and backward speed. Additional weights were used for changing the normal vertical loads on the lab test setup. The tires with the specification of maximum overall diameter up to 70 cm and maximum width up to 45 cm can be accommodated on the lab test setup.