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DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ALLOY WHEEL

Technical Report · November 2015

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1049.7367

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 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ALLOY WHEEL

M. I. RAZAK (MA13001)

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), 26600 Pekan, Pahang,
Malaysia, Phone: +60145231904
Email: ikhwan_razak@rocketmail.com

ABSTRACT

This summary is concerned on manufacturing process for alloy wheel. Alloy wheels are wheels
that are made from an alloy of aluminium or magnesium. Alloys are mixtures of metal and other
elements. They generally provide greater strength over pure metals, which are usually much
softer and more ductile. Automotive wheels have complicated geometry and must satisfy
manifold design criteria, such as style, weight, manufacturability, and performance. Factors that
should be emphasized in manufacturing of alloy wheel such as its strength to weight ratio, low
cost and better fuel consumption. The quality of alloy wheel is tested using high technology
devices in order to achieve the customer’s needs and standards according to respective bodies.

Keywords: Alloy; Aluminium; manifold design; fuel consumption.

INTRODUCTION

Components which are manufactured from cast alloys have been widely utilized in
automotive industry, due to its high strength to weight ratio, low cost and better fuel
consumption. The strength of the spot welds in the unibody vehicle structure determines the
integrity of the structural performance during the vehicle operations [1]. The increase of
consumer needs for quality metal cutting related products (more precise tolerances and better
product surface roughness) has driven the metal cutting industry to continuously improve
quality control of metal cutting processes [2]. Automotive wheels have complicated geometry
and must satisfy manifold design criteria, such as style, weight, manufacturability, and
performance. The combination of the stress states and geometric shapes of the spot welds
lead to stress concentration that can result in fatigue crack initiation around the spot
weld [3]. Now days, reduction in wheel weight is a major concern in wheel industry.
Optimization of milling is very useful to reduce cost and time for machining mould [4-6]. The
efficiency of machining operation especially milling process is always determined by the
material removal rate, tool wear and cycle time [7]. The objective of this paper is to design an
aluminium alloy wheel by meeting all the design standards. In this paper, the area between the
rim and the hub is considered for optimization. Topology Optimization has been carried in 5
cyclic cases where the loading conditions are similar for every 72°. This new optimized design
is analyzed under radial, bending and lateral loads to determine the stresses induced in static
condition of the wheel of automobile. The succeeded model is used to evaluate to determine its
life period under radial loading condition.
 EXPERIMENTAL SET UP

CAD Design of Wheel

The CAD design of wheel is prepared based on the standard nomenclature at the outer and the
hub region of the wheel. Figure 1 shows the CAD design of the wheel rim before optimization

Figure 1: CAD design of rim before optimization

Material used

In the present investigation Al-Si (B.S.: LM25 alloy) is used. The alloy mainly consisted of 6.5-
7.0.0%Si, 0.3-0.4% Mg and rest is Aluminium. The properties of the alloy used is in heat
treated (T6) condition. The properties of the alloy are shown in Table 1. The microstructure of
the alloy in heat treated condition shows primary Al and near spherical eutectic Si. Fine
precipitate of Mg2Si is responsible for improved properties.

Table 1. Material properties of LM25 aluminum alloy in T6 condition (14)

Material Properties Magnitude with

units
Tensile Stress 230 MPa
Endurance Limit 56 MPa
Modulus of Elasticity 71 (GPa)
Shear Strength 120 MPa
Tensile Yield Stress 185 MPa
Compressive Yield 185 MPa
Stress
Elongation (%) 4
Density 2.685 g/cm3 at 20°C

Finite Element Analysis

The FE model is prepared for 36° of its circumference as the remaining part can reflected
exactly. The required modifications can also be done in the same portion. Hexahedral and
pentagonal elements are used for modeling. Finite element modeling and analysis is carried out
using Hypermesh. Element size of 5 mm is used for meshing with 100118 elements and 100200
nodes. Figure 2 shows the 2D and 3D elements of the wheel rim and the cross section.

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 Figure 2: 2D and 3D element representation of rim and its cross section

Optimization is done to reduce the material consumption hence to reduce the weight of the
wheel. Hence the loading conditions were considered based on the automobile weight applied
over it. Each wheel in an automobile will carry the load by distributing among them. This load
is considered to be along the radial direction and applied it in optimizing the model for mass.
Figure 3 shows typical radial Loading of 9000 N.

Figure 3: Radial Loads with respect to Bolt Location Model Setup for Optimization

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Alloy wheels are usually made of aluminum or magnesium alloys. The advantages of alloy
wheel are lightweight, better heat conduction and excellent aesthetic appearance. Because of
these interesting properties alloy wheel gaining popularities. Although Mg alloy wheels are
developed in 1960 but due to lack of ductility, the alloy wheel lost their favour in vehicle. In the
recent technological advancement, considerable attempts are being made to develop Al and Mg
alloys to suit to requirement for alloy wheel. Further weight reduction of the wheel hub may be
realized by design. Weight reduction is one of the essential criteria of a vesicle as far as the fuel
efficiency is concerned. Use of light weight metals and alloys is now becoming the designer’s
choice. The existing components which are made of steel and cast iron are slowly phased out by
replacing with Al and Mg alloys having comparable properties. Considerable research is now

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being done to enhance the strength properties of Al and Mg alloys so as to find them an ideal
replacement of heavier counterpart. Al-Si (LM25) is one such cast alloy having comparable
strength, fatigue, Young modulus, yield stress and other related properties and finding place to
replace steel and cast iron. In the present study LM25 alloy is used as a potential material for
automobile wheel rim application. Zhao et.al (15) have studied the A356 Al alloy for wheel
application. A356 Al alloy is similar to the LM25 alloy which was studied in the present
investigation. Their work has emphasized that a sound casting is desirable for wheel hub
application. Casting defects such as porosity and inclusions resulted into deteriorate the
properties and would not fit for wheel hub applications. CAD is developed using Hypermesh
FEA software with standard wheel design norms. The raw design of rim (i.e., non-design space)
is optimized for mass compliance at cyclic loading conditions. Aluminum Alloy Grade -
AlSi7Mg0.3 T6, often known as A354 (LM25) is used in this wheel design. The analysis result
is found within the yield stress limit and found safe.

CONCLUSIONS

In the optimization of wheel rim, the wheel structure and its features are divided into two parts,
namely design space and non-design space. The non-design space is the standard design and
cannot be modified. The design space is the region for optimizing the weight and shape of the
arms. The wheel design space is optimized in order to withstand the existing load of the vehicle
with the factor of safety with a least quantity of material and manufacturing cost and losses. The
five arm structure is the optimal output of the solver to withstand stresses.

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