Modeling and Simulation of a 3-wheel Rear Axle

Abstract

All commercial vehicles have some type of axle shaft-differential assembly incorporated into the driveline. Rear wheel drive is a common form of engine-transmission layout used in automobiles. Rear wheel drive means the power from the engine and the transmission goes to the rear wheels. In operation, axle shafts are generally subjected to torsion stress and bending stress due to self-weight or weights of components or possible misalignment between journal bearings. Thus, these rotating components are susceptible to fatigue by the nature of their operation and the fatigue failures are generally of the torsion, rotating-bending, and reversed (two-way) bending type. The Objective behind creation of this project is that Indian roads which have bad riding quality, poor geometrics, and insufficient pavement thickness:all these factors affect the life of axle and also not much research has been done in this area.There is strong need of this project because in a three wheeler there are many things which can be improved or prevented like:- 1. Breaking/failure of rear wheel axle. 2. We can increase the efficiency of axle. 3. We can use that material in axle which is less costly and has longer life. 4. We can improve on the axial design. 5. Not much research has been done. Different tests were performed on the existing axle. Then all the readings and results were taken into account and different materials were selected and calculations were done on them regarding different diameters. At last the best material was selected and was fabricated; also we have calculated the amount of fuel saved from this project