Research On Thermal Elastic-Plastic Analysis And Fatigue Life Prediction For Drive Axle Housing

Through surveying failure parts returned by an axle company market and machining process of defective goods deformation failure mode, this paper takes automobile drive axle housing as object, and studies driving the axle housing body deformation correction remanufacturing process method combined with numerical simulation of flame orthogonal experiment from thermal elastic-plastic analysis. The feasibility and reliability of this remanufacturing process is analyzed, and the remanufacturing life prediction model of the axle housing is established. The work of this paper is mainly reflected in the following aspects:According to the statistical results of drive axle housing deformation failure mode and recent domestic and foreign progress of deformation flame straightening thermal elastic-plastic analysis method and fatigue life research, the main research contents about thermal elastic-plastic analysis and fatigue life prediction for drive axle housing are determined. For the automobile drive axle housing deformation correction problems, orthogonal experiment was done to optimize the process parameters of flame straightening, such as heating temperature, heating area and the heating time. The results of optimal process parameters are used to numerically simulate the elastic-plastic model of the drive axle housing, and to determine the optimal heating temperature and deformation. The corrective program is planned. Based on ABAQUS/FE-SAFE analysis and fatigue damage theory, the fatigue life prediction model is built.Based on the finite element method analysis theory, ABAQUS is used to analyze the static mechanical properties of a certain type of car drive axle housing. The whole process from the three-dimensional geometric modeling to finite element analysis is completed. The axle housing deformation and stress field and the inherent frequency and vibration model diagram is obtained through the finite element analysis. The results show that the axle housing is safe and reliable in the car under various driving conditions.The drive axle housing’s body material-16Mn steel plate is taken as flame straightening specimens. Through controlling the different heating temperature, heating time and heating area, the orthogonal experiment was designed to get the comprehensive optimal process parameters combination of material flame straightening and the master-subordinate relation of all factors which have effect on the correction. The results of optimal process parameters are used to numerically simulate the elastic-plastic model of the drive axle housing, and to determine the optimal heating temperature and deformation. The corrective program is planned.The fatigue life prediction model of drive axle housing is built. Based on the cumulative damage theory, the axle housing under the action of the sine load spectrum is analyzed with ABAQUS/FE-SAFE software to get the monolithic life distribution nephogram and dangerous area distribution situations. Then the drive axle housing fatigue characteristics are determined and fatigue life prediction model is built. The result demonstrates that the fatigue location of axle housing is usually the location of stress concentration. Invoking the analysis results of finite element software and loading the measured time history of loads as fatigue load in the FE-SAFE software, the fatigue life of the axle housing under the working status can be predicted.