Study On Mechanical Properties And Process Optimization Of Friction Welding Axle Shaft

Axle shaft, which is used to transfer power of differential to the driving wheel and connect differential and hub, is an important part of the axle. The stress of axle shaft is complicated, not only to bear the torque transmitted by the engine, but also to bear the force caused by wheel load. Friction welding axle shaft, which is manufactured by friction welding process, has the advantages of reducing production cost, increasing productivity, energy saving and environmental protection. It is important to study whether this kind of axle shaft can meet the requirements of actual work and how to optimize heat treatment process for improving axle shaft performance. This paper do some studies on the friction welding axle shaft, based on theoretical calculation, finite element analysis and experiments. Specific work is as follows:The test torque of axle shaft is calculated according to the vehicle parameters, the calculation provided data support for the finite element analysis and experimental study. It is studied about detailed design calculation and whether axle shaft can meet the design requirements according to different force of automobile. Based on the study on failure forms and causes, it is concluded that failure is mostly occurred at spline and heat treatment process can improve the life of axle shaft.The bench experiment of friction welding axle shaft, which includes static torsion strength test and torsion fatigue test, is conducted based on the test torque calculation. It is studied on axle shaft static torsion strength and fatigue life by detailed processing of experimental results. The theoretical results of static torsion strength and fatigue life are conducted by analysis on axle shaft with professional finite element analysis software. Compared theoretical analysis results with experimental results, it is conducted that the spline part is most likely to failure and the fatigue life meets the design requirements.In order to improve the performance of axle shaft, the optimization test is designed for heat treatment process, especially considering the influence of raw materials, quenching liquid concentration and induction coil speed. In the first part, comparative experiments are carried out to study the influence of various factors, getting a range of options; in the second part, doing refinement on the selected range and carrying out the detailed comparison experiments; finally, according to the experimental results, the optimization parameters can be obtained to improve the performance of axle shaft.