CAE Users Conference 2005
August 11-13, Bangalore
Topology Optimization of Track-Rod-Lever
D. Balamurugan
Senior Development Engineer, CAE
Ashok Leyland Technical Centre
Chennai, Tamilnadu, India
Keywords: Re-engineering, Topology, Optimization, Stress, Deflection, Track-rod-lever
Abstract
With steel prices going up, mass reduction of components in a commercial vehicle will allow the manufacturer to
stay competitive in the market. In this context mass reduction by optimization of track rod lever was looked at.
The Track rod lever is a part of the steering assembly in a Truck/Bus. This component is meant for transferring
the motion from one wheel to the other, through the Tie rod. Since track rod lever being a part of steering system
it is vital that the stress levels should be maintained well with in limits for safety reasons. By performing
optimization with OptiStruct reduction of mass by 11% was obtained with no increase in stress value at all.
Keywords: Track rod lever, Topology, Optimization, Stress, Deflection, Tie rod arm.
Introduction
To study the capability of the OptiStruct software from the Optimization analysis perspective Track Rod Lever
has been taken as the case study. Topology optimization has been done on the component.
Process Methodology
The Track rod lever has been meshed with solid tetrahedral elements in HYPERMESH. The bolt holes have been
restrained in all degrees of freedom and the load has been applied at the ball pillar centre. A static analysis has
been carried out to determine the stress and displacement levels.
The model with design space has been created & similar boundary condition has been applied to the model. An
optimization deck has been set up with the objective function to minimize mass. The constraint is the
displacement of the static analysis of the initial design. The model has been solved for optimization in
OPTISTRUCT. From the results obtained, it has been found that the material requirement between the two bolt
holes is not essential. The optimized model (Finite element model) has been converted in to a CAD model using
OSSMOOTH. The CAD model has been imported into third party CAD s/w and a new CAD geometry has been
created using the optimized model as the reference.
A static analysis has been performed on the Optimized CAD model to determine the stress and displacements.
The process flow has been shown below.
1
