Effect of design and material on structural rigidity of automobile wheel - an optimisation approach

Abstract An automobile wheel plays a vital role in supporting the tyre and the entire weight of any vehicle. This study aims to examine the distribution of stress and deformation across 5-twin-spoke and multi-spoke wheel designs whilst varying lightweight materials, as well as optimise the base designs of the wheel such that they reach an optimum level. The wheel was modelled using SolidWorks, before being analyse by Finite Element Analysis software whereby aluminium and magnesium alloys were assigned. The structural rigidity of the wheel models was assessed by conducting static structural analysis and radial fatigue analysis. Changes in terms of total deformation, von-Mises and alternative stress were obtained, and tabulated. Optimisation of the wheel models was conducted by making necessary modifications to the base designs. The result shows that multi-spoke fared better than 5-twin-spoke in both analyses, and the notable weak point observed is the hub region. In term of material-wise, it was found that Magnesium AZ91D alloy generally has higher deformation, von-Mises and alternating stress than Aluminium 6061 Alloy. Future works could be focused more on conducting additional tests so that the wheel models are well-geared for road usage, such as impact and cornering fatigue tests.