Property Research And Thickness Optimization Design Of The Driving Axle Housing Of The T380 Heavy Towing Truck

The driving axle housing is the most important components of the heavy towing vehicle and it is the assembly basic of the main reducer, differential, semi shaft and other components. The power is generally generated by the engine and transferred to the main reducer, differential, semi shaft, driving tire. The stress situation of the driving axle housing is so complex that it not only bears the weight of the heavy towing vehicle but also bears the reaction force and anti torque transferred from the road surface to the wheels and transfers the reaction force and anti torque to the truck frame. As it often bears the alternating load, the driving axle housing is easy to produce fatigue damage.This paper took the driving axle housing of the heavy towing tractor T380 as the research object and did static analysis of the typical working conditions. Firstly, according to the structural parameters of the driving axle housing and the typical working conditions, the analytical analysis of the typical working conditions was done. And the maximum stress position and the magnitude of maximum stress were obtained. Then, the numerical analysis of the typical working conditions was done. Comparing the analytical analysis results and the numerical analysis results, it could be found that the two results were very close and the error was within the allowed range. According to the numerical analysis results, it could be found that the maximum stress and maximum displacement of the driving axle housing were far less than the material allowable stress and allowable displacement, and the driving axle housing met the requirements of strength and rigidity in the typical working conditions and the thickness optimization of the structure could be made to improve the material utilization ratio.The parametric geometric model of the driving axle housing was established using the language of APDL in the finite element analysis software ANSYS and the thickness optimization design was made in the maximum braking force working condition. After optimization, the thickness of the driving axle housing decreased 3 mm and its weight reduced 13.57%.The driving axle housing was analyzed by modal analysis in the finite element analysis software ANSYS, and the first 18 order natural frequency and modal shape were obtained. The finite element analysis results showed that the first six natural frequencies were 0 Hz, which were rigid body mode. The natural frequency increased with the order number from the seventh order, and the minimum frequency was above 100 Hz, which was far more than the road vibration frequency 0~50 Hz. So the driving axle housing of the heavy towing truck would not produce resonance.The driving axle housing’s fatigue life analysis was done according to the vertical bending fatigue test condition in the fatigue life analysis software FE-SAFE. It was known from the results of fatigue life analysis that the fatigue life of driving axle housing was much higher than the standard 800000 requirements.The relationship between the changes in spring center distance and the statics performance, modal properties, fatigue life was studied using the finite element analysis software ANSYS and fatigue life analysis software FE-SAFE. And the maximum stress, the maximum displacement, the seventh to twelfth order natural frequency, fatigue life change with the spring center distance curves were obtained which provided a theoretical basis and technical support for the spring seat arrangement.