Design and Analysis of Heavy Vehicle Chassis by Using Materials Steel & S-Glass

Abstract

The automobile is divided into two parts body and chassis. The chassis is basic structure of a vehicle. It contains all the engine parts and power systems but the frame is the main portion of chassis which do not contain any other assemblies like engine parts. Its principle function is to safely carry the maximum load for all designed operating conditions. Composite material is a material composed of two or more distinct phases and having bulk properties significantly different from those of any of the constituents. Different types of composite material are available and one of it is Polymer matrix composite. It has the benefits of high tensile strength, high stiffness and good corrosion resistance etc. At present this polymer matrix composite materials are used in aerospace, automobile industries due to it high strength to low weight ratio. In the present work, the dimensions of an existing heavy vehicle chassis of a TATA 1109 EX2 vehicle is taken for modeling and analysis. The vehicle frame is initially modeled by considering „C‟ cross section in SOLID WORKS 2014 then it is imported to ANSYS 13.0. The analysis is done with two different composite materials namely Steel and S-glass/Epoxy subjected to the same pressure as that of a steel frame. The design constraints are stresses and deformations. The results are then compared to finalize the best among all the four frames.