Experimental &FEA Assessment of Modification in Portal Axle Shaft

Abstract

Portal axles (or portal gear) are designed for off-road driving conditions. The axle tube is above the center of the wheel hub and a reduction gearbox present within the hub. Axle tube is installed between the wheel and the axle shaft to give more ground clearance to the vehicle. It is the shaft which must have higher strength and toughness.Since composite materials are having promising properties, which can reduce the weight and almost equal to conventional material properties. In this paper portal axle shaft is analyzed by Finite Element Analysis considering varying parameters i.e. rib thickness and hollow shaft thickness and are consider. Some of the parameters are kept constant which are the depth of spokes, the rib fillet radius and the number of spokes. The Torsional strength of the shaft compared for three different models.The modeling and simulation of spur gears in placed portal axle is important to predict the actual motion behavior. However, gear train design in portal axle is difficult to study comprehensively due to their relatively low cost and short product life cycle. In this study, modal analysis of portal axle shaft is simulated using Finite Element Method(FEM). Keywords:EN-24, FEM, torsion test, Taguchi approach, Torsion Testing Machine. I. Introduction A portal axle unit is installed between the wheel and the axle shaft to give higher ground clearance to the vehicle. It allows driving on off-road so that the vehicle can go over high terrains and obstacles. Compared to normal axel, portal axles enable the vehicle to gain a higher ground clearance, as both axel tube and differential casing are tucked up higher under the vehicle. The difference between normal axel and portal axel are showed in the below figure1