Vehicle Wheel Fatigue Strength and Reliability Analysis with FEM

Questions of finding new ways to improve vehicle wheel reliability have been in focus for decades. Many of them remain actual as targets for research nowadays. The most important directions to ensure vehicle wheels durability and reliability are proper wheel strength to impact and fatigue failure. The paper introduces the approach of FEM fatigue analysis of the vehicle wheels. Fatigue strength simulations have been carried out for a sample of passenger car aluminum alloy wheel. Load conditions are based on procedures of dynamic cornering fatigue test which represents higher cyclic loading stress amplitudes as compared to straight forward or combined vehicle motion. Wheel FEA model contains elements of testing equipment that are in direct contact with the wheel or transmit the load to the wheel during the physical test. Initial analysis has been executed under quasi-static loading condition. Fatigue strength has been evaluated using MSC.Fatigue modules.