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Featured Application: The research of propagation characteristics can provide a significance and value for McPherson suspension system design. Tire cavity resonance noise (TCRN) is one of main contributors to vehicle interior noise, which has long been a concern in the automotive industry and academia. As suspension is crucial for the propagation of TCRN energy into the vehicle, the propagation characteristics of energy in automobile suspension is studied in this research. Firstly, the finite element model of a McPherson suspension system connected to an aluminum alloy wheel with a Y-shaped spoke was established. Then, a modal analysis and response calculations of the McPherson suspension system connected to the aluminum alloy wheel with a Y-shaped spoke were carried out. Finally, the propagation characteristics of TCRN in the McPherson suspension system connected to the aluminum alloy wheel with a Y-shaped spoke were studied and analyzed by the power flow method under different working conditions. The power flow output via the lower arm front bushing was the largest, while the output via the rear bushing was the smallest in the Y-spoke aluminum alloy wheel and suspension system. The areas in the suspension system with high stress are located at the steering knuckle, lower swing arm, and shock absorber. Therefore, study of the propagation characteristics can provide a basis for a McPherson suspension system design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the bottlenecks encountered in the development of automobile wheels made of lightweight materials is the 13-degree bench impact test. To improve the impact resistance of lightweight material wheels, the topology optimization (TO) model of multi-design spaces and multi-load cases and the combination of gray relational analysis (GRA) and principal component analysis (PCA) are simultaneously integrated into a multi-objective topology optimization (MOTO) approach to obtain the optimized topology layout of the wheel. Firstly, a three-dimensional wheel TO model is established based on the variable density method and divided into three design spaces and two non-design spaces. Secondly, the load parameters of the wheel under cornering, radial, and 13-degree impact load cases are determined, and the corresponding finite element models are established. For the 13-degree impact load case, the real-time energy reduction coefficient is introduced to compensate for the tire absence, thereby determining the dynamic load of the striker acting on the wheel alone. And then, a series of extracted forces data during the whole impact simulation are equivalent to a concentrated load suitable for the wheel static TO through the weighted sum compliance method. Thirdly, the combination of GRA and PCA is introduced to determine the weight coefficient (WC) of each sub-objective. Next, the MOTO of the wheel is implemented, and the influence of different constraints on the wheel topology layout is analyzed. Finally, the modal analysis and 13-degree impact simulation are performed on the reconstructed wheels with different topology layouts to verify their performance. The results show that the natural frequencies of the optimized wheels meet the requirements and a variety of wheel topology layouts with improved impact resistance are obtained, which provides a valuable guidance for the development of wheel in practical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of low-frequency vehicle interior noise, tire acoustic cavity resonance noise plays an important role, since the other noise (e.g., engine noise, wind noise and friction noise) has been largely suppressed. For the suspension system, wheels stand first in the propagation path of this energy. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the influence of wheel design on the transmission characteristics of this vibration energy. However, currently the related research has not received enough attention. In this paper, two sizes of aluminum alloy wheel finite element models are constructed, and their modal characteristics are analyzed and verified by experimental tests simultaneously. A mathematically fitting sound pressure load model arising from the tire acoustic cavity resonance acting on the rim is first put forward. Then, the power flow method is applied to investigate the resonance energy distribution and transmission characteristics in the wheels. The structure intensity distribution and energy transmission efficiency can be described and analyzed clearly. Furthermore, the effects of material structure damping and the wheel spoke number on the energy transmission are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The finite element model of tire considering the structural and material nonlinearity is established in terms of the real tire. • The simulations of 13° impact test of automotive wheel are performed, and the results are verified by experimental result. • The effects of tire on wheel during the impact test are discussed, and a conclusion of the tire has dual effects on wheel performance is drawn. The effect of tire on the wheel should be considered in detail in the process of simulating 13° impact test of the automotive wheel. However, due to the complexity and nonlinearity of the tire, the tire is usually simplified or neglected in the current simulation of wheel impact test, and these often lead to insufficient simulation accuracy. In this paper, a numerical simulation approach is proposed to evaluate the impact performance of wheel, in which the finite element model of tire is established in terms of the real tire. The physical wheel 13° impact tests are also performed, and the comparison between the simulation and experiment indicate that the proposed simulation method provides an efficient tool for predicting the impact performance of the wheel in wheel 13° impact test. Furthermore, the effects of tire on wheel are discussed by comparing the simulation and experiment results, and the results show the tire has a dual effect on wheel performance during the wheel 13° impact test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steel wheel is an important safety component of a passenger car, which mainly consists of wheel disc and rim. The steel wheel disc is generally formed by the stamping process, and in this process the great residual stress is generated in the surface which may significantly affects the fatigue life of the wheel. In this paper, a method is proposed to introduce the stamping residual stress of steel wheel disc so as to predict the fatigue life of the wheel accurately. Firstly, the residual stress is obtained from the simulation of stamping process, and the experimental verification is conducted. Then the operating stress is simulated based on the cornering fatigue test. Finally, these two stresses are superposed to predict the fatigue life of the steel wheel. The results show that the predicted fatigue life using this method is closer to the experimental one than the fatigue life without considering the residual stress. The proposed method may provide an accurate and effective tool for predicting the fatigue life of the steel wheel in the cornering fatigue test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tire acoustic cavity resonance (TACR) noise is one of the significant sources causing vehicle interior noise at low-frequency band. Since the rotating and loading conditions can split TACR frequencies, TACR noise exhibits a relatively narrow frequency band, which becomes a challenge to attenuate this type of noise. To deal with this problem, the reduction method of the Helmholtz resonator (HR) group installed inside a lightweight aluminum alloy wheel is adopted in this paper. By the combination welding of spoke and rim in aluminum alloy wheel of a passenger vehicle, the internal annular hollow area is generated as the installation space for this HR group. Great advantages of this manufacturing process are the lightweight and easy installation performances for the wheel. According to the theoretical analyses based on the superposition of traveling waves and its experimental validations, the frequency bands of TACR noise for a rotating tire are determined. To reduce the noise, HR group consisting of 5 different sizes is designed by the Finite Element Method (FEM). Meanwhile, the sound-reducing tire-wheel assembly incorporated with the designed HR group is manufactured and tested by the bench and vehicle experiments. A remarkable reduction can be observed at the peak and specified frequency range of TACR noise. Moreover, the performance also proves to be stable and robust under various road and speed conditions. This paper provides a comprehensive and feasible process strategy for the development of noise-reducing wheel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A rapid method based on proper orthogonal decomposition and radial basis function is presented for wheel fatigue evaluation. • The computational efficiency in predicting wheel fatigue life under biaxial load spectrum is significantly improved. • The accuracy of the method in the calculation of wheel stresses and fatigue life is proven by experimental results. This paper presents a rapid method for predicting the biaxial fatigue life of automotive wheels using a combination of proper orthogonal decomposition and radial basis function algorithm. Currently, numerical simulations of biaxial fatigue tests are being developed to evaluate wheel performance. However, these simulations are computationally expensive due to the need to simulate multiple discrete loading cases within a given biaxial spectrum. To address this issue, we propose a novel approach that utilizes proper orthogonal decomposition and radial basis function algorithm to improve computational efficiency. By leveraging high-fidelity simulation results from a small number of loading cases, a reduced order model is constructed to accurately predict the tire-rim interface force fields required for wheel strength calculations. The reduced order model significantly reduces the computational time by 65.4% for simulating all loading cases, while maintaining a maximum predicted error of less than 2% compared to the high-fidelity model. Subsequently, the predicted interface forces are mapped onto the rim surface for strength calculation, and the wheel fatigue life is determined using the Brown-Miller multiaxial damage criterion. Comparative analysis with experimental results demonstrates the desirable accuracy of our method in simulating the stress-strain history, crack initiation position, and minimum fatigue life of the wheel. Overall, the proposed method offers a powerful tool for the rapid fatigue analysis of spectrum-loaded wheels, providing an efficient and accurate means of predicting biaxial fatigue life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to propose a multi-objective topology optimization methodology for steel wheel, in which both the compliance and eigenfrequencies are regarded as static and dynamic optimization objectives. Compromise programming method is employed to define the objectives of multi-objective and multi-stiffness topology optimizations, whereas mean-frequency formulation is adopted to settle eigenfrequencies of free vibration optimization. To obtain a clear and useful topology optimization result, cyclical symmetry and manufacturing constraints are set, the influences of which on the outcomes are also discussed. With an appropriate value of the minimum member size, a rough topology optimization of the steel wheel is obtained. The optimization result is modified according to the actual structure and manufacturing process. Moreover, based on this result, eight different steel wheel modes are established to analyze the influence of the manufacturing process and draw beads on the wheel performance through finite element simulation. Simulation results are verified by conducting a stress test of a commercially available wheel. Compared with its initial design, the optimized wheel disc exhibited decreased mass at 0.15 Kg at percentage of 4.57%, manifesting the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the important components affecting the safety and reliability of automobile, the wheel needs to meet the test requirements for fatigue and impact performance. The 90-degree impact test of wheel is used to replicate the harsh conditions during driving, such as automobile frontally impact on road pits. In order to guarantee the performance of wheel, many automobile companies have begun to increase impact performance requirements on steel wheels, although there is no public standard for 90-degree impact test of steel wheel. In this paper, the FE model of wheel assembled composite tire are established first, and then used to evaluate the impact resistance of wheel. Furthermore, two different test benches and two different tires are modeled to investigate the effects of test methods and tire sizes on the wheel performance evaluation results. To evaluate the validity of the simulation method, the wheel 90° impact tests with different tires are also performed. The comparison between the simulation and test results show that the simulation methods presented in this paper can provide an effective way to evaluate the impact resistance of the wheel, and the influences of different tires should be fully considered in the wheel 90-degree impact test. • Simulation results of the 90° impact test of steel wheel verified by experimental results. • Investigating the effects of test methods and tire sizes on the simulation results. • Disclosing the dual effects of tire brand and size on wheel performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]