Application Study Of Virtual Prototyping Technology On Concrete Pump Truck

The concrete pump truck is a main equipment of construction machinery during commercial concrete transportation and deposition. By considering concrete pump truck as a representative product, the design method of electromechanical equipment with virtual prototyping technology is researched in this paper. The virtual prototyping model is established, and multi-body dynamics simulation and finite element analysis are calculated. And the paper also introduces the integrated virtual design method for concrete pump truck. The main works of the paper are as follows: 1. Design of concrete pump truck The geometric model of the pump truck is built with Pro/E software, by which virtual assembly simulation of the concrete pump truck is performed. This geometric model data will be provided for the models that are used in multi-body dynamics simulation and finite element analysis. The method of data transfer between geometric model of Pro/E, ADAMS and ANSYS is described. 2. Multi-body dynamics simulation The geometric models of Pro/E are transferred to the mechanical system simulation software ADAMS, by which the multi-body dynamics simulation model is built. A simulation of the concrete pump truck boom is performed with this model. According to the simulation results, the design is modified by Pro/E. And the results also provide load files for the finite element analysis. 3. Finite element analysis The geometric model data built by Pro/E are transmitted to the finite element analysis software ANSYS. A finite element analysis model is set up by ANSYS. The concrete pump truck boom and important parts are analyzed by ANSYS and the analysis results are used to prove the correctness of design. The concrete pump truck is designed in this paper. The results such as loads, stress and strain of the boom parts are obtained by multi-body dynamic simulation and finite element analysis. It is also proved that the structure design is reasonable. The problem about the data validity during the transmission is solved by the analysis of data transmission. The proposed method in the paper is useful to enhance the capability of concrete pump trucks development, to shorten the period of development and to reduce the cost of design.