Abstract

Design and Analysis of Metal Composite Hybrid Wheel Rim

Author(s): K. Venkata Sai Karthik and N. Prakash

Wheel rim is a critical component of a vehicle, also a connecting point for the wheel to road surface. It is the only part of the vehicle to be in contact with road surface. Wheel rim will transfer the vibrations from wheel to suspension and steady vertical load acting on a wheel rim through the vehicle. These are most influencing factors for comfortable ride and the performance of the vehicle. The only possible factor is to improve the material properties of the wheel rim for better performance and comfort. The work deals with a new designed material that is metal composite hybrid wheel rim. In which friction layer is used in between the composite and aluminium material to enhancing the damping capacity and improving the ride comfort. To find the natural frequencies and stiffness a model is designed using commercial software SOLIDWORKS and the factors are estimated by commercial analysis software ANSYS Workbench. The present work deals the analysis of hybrid wheel rim subjected to vertical load, damping factor and stiffness of material under various condition are found.