Interlink Trailor - FE Analysis
Interlink trailer chassis design is an established application field for Finite Element Analysis. Qfinsoft was contracted by Raventech and M-Tech Industrial to perform failure analysis of a trailer chassis using the Finite Element Method. ANSYS DesignModeler™ was used where automated mid-surfacing and Symmetry simplifications were needed. The ANSYS Meshing Platform™ rapidly generates a high quality hex dominant mapped surface mesh on the bodies (Figure 1). The mesh is conformal and all nodes between separate parts are coincident. This reduces the time associated with contact specification and reduced run time.
Figure 1: Conformal Shell Element Mesh
ANSYS Mechanical™ is used for the simulation setup, solution and post-processing. Material properties, Connections, Loads and Boundary Conditions are defined. Post processing includes safety factors, deformations (Figure 2) as well as stress results (Figure 3).
Figure 2: Contours of Deformations Plotted on a Symmetry Section of the Trailer
Figure 3: Contours of Von Misses Stress Plotted on a Section of the Trailer
Areas of interest or concern are identified where failure might occur due to static or cyclic (fatigue) loading. The study was successful at identifying failure zones. This allowed for the identification and verification of improved design features.