Reliability Analysis And Optimization Design For Steering Knuckle Of Mining Dump Truck

Steering knuckle is an important part of automobile steering system. The strength andfatigue life characteristics of it strongly affect vehicle’s reliability and safety. Because of largeload and poor working condition, the Steering knuckle is easy to failure. In view of this, thispaper carried out reliability analysis and optimization of a dump truck steering knuckle.First, geometrical model of the steering knuckle was established in CATIA software andthis module was imported into HyperMesh software. Second, the finite element model ofsteering knuckle could be obtained after pretreatment and meshing. Then statics analysis wasconducted, and the cloud distribution of von Mises stress contour and deformation maps etcunder seven typical working conditions were extracted in ANSYS software. The resultsindicate that this steering knuckle can satisfy the strength requirements.Based on the statics analysis, this research counted in the random influencial factors ofthe reliability, such as material heterogeneity, loads randomness, etc. which makes thesimulations more like the real considerations. The reliability analysis file could be compiledby the language of APDL. Then the static and fatigue reliability analysis were executed bythe method of Monte Carlo and response surface in the PDS module to obtain the statisticalresults of output variable, the failure probability and reliability.In the actually, many variables not only have the randomness but also the fuzziness.Meanwhile, the state from safety to failure is not abrupt, but there is a transition process. Inorder to reflect the effects of variables on the reliability of steering knuckle bitterly, the fuzzyreliability analysis was carried out on the steering knuckle in this paper. The method ofcalculating reliability analysis under different stress and strength properties was explored.Finally, the structure and material of steering knuckle was optimized after the staticanalysis, fatigue life prediction and reliability analysis about the steering knuckle．Afteroptimization, the result indicate that the mass of the steering knuckle is less to cut down thecost of production and can meet the design requirement．...