MODELING, SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION ANALYSIS OF STEERING KNUCKLE COMPONENT FOR RACE CAR
Light weight and low fuel consumption are the two main demands for a vehicle, particularly for a race car. Steering knuckle, as one of the critical components of a race car, is the main subject in the present study. A light weight and optimized design of steering knuckle is proposed to be used for an EIMARace race car; a small high-performance formula-style car, with suitable material selection as well as valid finite element analysis and optimization studies. First part of this study involves modeling of steering knuckles and analysis of the stresses and displacement under actual load conditions. A CAD and FEA software; SolidWorks, is applied for modeling as well as for static analysis studies. Shape optimization is the second part of this study, utilizing solid Thinking software from Altair Engineering packages. The improved design obtained had achieved 45.8% reduction of mass while meeting the strength requirement.
Design Improvement of Steering Knuckle Component Using Shape Optimization
Reducing mass of vehicle components will contribute towards overall mass reduction of a vehicle, lower its energy consumption demand, therefore, will improve its fuel efficiency. Material resources will be saved too. The objective of this research is reduce mass of an existing steering knuckle component of a local car model by applying shape optimization technique. A finite element software, HyperWorks which contains several modules, is used to achieve this objective. HyperMesh was used to prepare the finite element model while HyperMorph was utilized for defining shape variables. For optimization purpose, OptiStruct was utilized. The improved design achieves 8.4% reduction of mass. Even though there are volume reduction and shape changes, maximum stress has not change significantly. This result is satisfactory considering using optimization in shape only, with limited design space given and no change in material properties.
Experimental study of water fluxes in a residential area: 2. Road infiltration, runoff and evaporation
Lack of accurate data has led some hydrologists and city planners to assume that urban infiltration is zero and runoff is 100% of the rainfall. These assumptions lead to an over estimation of road runoff volume and an underestimation of direct recharge to groundwater, which is already rising under some UK cities. This study investigates infiltration and runoff processes and quantifies the percentage of rainfall that contributes to storm drainage, and that which infiltrates through different types of road surface. Access tubes were installed for measuring soil water content using a neutron probe in three car parks, a road and a grass site at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford. Storm drainage was recorded at the exit of the Thamesmead Estate in Crowmarsh Gifford, just before the drain joins the River Thames at Wallingford. Rainfall and water table depth were also recorded. Weekly measurements of soil moisture content indicated that the top 40 cm layer is not influenced by water‐table fluctuations and, therefore, positive changes in soil moisture could be attributed to infiltration of rainfall through the surface. Depending on the nature of the surface, subsurface layers, level of traffic, etc., between 6 and 9% of rainfall was found to infiltrate through the road surfaces studied. The storm drainage generated by road runoff revealed a flow pattern similar to that of the receiving watercourse (River Thames) and increased with the increase of infiltration and soil water content below the road surface. The ratio of runoff to rainfall was 0·7, 0·9 and 0·5 for annual, winter (October–March) and summer (April–September) respectively. As the results of the infiltration indicated that 6 to 9% of annual rainfall infiltrates through the road surface, this means that evaporation represents, 21–24% of annual rainfall, with more evaporation taking place during summer than winter. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.