Parametric Study on the Effect of Aspect Ratio of Selected Cooling Hole Geometries on the Mechanical Response of an Automobile Aluminium Alloy Wheel

Document pages: 17 pages

Abstract: Aluminium alloy wheels are increasingly popular for their light weight and good thermal conductivity. Cooling Holes (CH) are introduced to reduce their weight without compromising structural integrity. Literature is sparse on the effect of aspect ratio (AR) of CHs on wheels. This, work, therefore, attempts to undertake a parametric study of the effect of aspect ratio (AR) on the mechanical response of an aluminium alloy wheel with triangular, quadrilateral and oval-shaped CHs. Three-dimensional wheel models (6JX14H2ET42) with triangular, quadrilateral and oval shaped CH (each with CH area of 2229 mm2) were generated, discretized, and analyzed by FEM using Creo Elements Pro 5.0 to determine the mechanical response at the inboard bead seat at different ARs of 1, 0.5, 0.33 and 0.25, each for quadrilateral-CH and oval-CH, at a static Radial Load of 4750 N and Inflation Pressures of 0.3 and 0.15 MPa, respectively. The study shows that the magnitude of stress and displacement is affected by shape and AR of CH. From the results, it could be established that oval-shaped-CH wheel at AR of 0.5 offers greater prospect in wheel design as it was least stressed and deformed and, that the CH combination with highest integrity was the oval-CH and quadrilateral-CH at AR of 0.5.