Upper Control Arm Design Optimization
ANSYS FEA
1. Project Overview
Objective: Minimize the weight of a Wishbone-style upper control arm while ensuring structural integrity
Material: 6061-T6 Aluminum alloy
Load: 2000 N axial force
Constraints:
- von Mises stress < 50 MPa
- Maximum deflection < 0.5 mm
Key Tasks
- ANSYS Mechanical APDL
- SolidWorks
- FEA and FEM
- Documentation via Excel
Team
5 Mechanical Engineers
2. Process and Work
Planning & Organization
Created a shared Excel spreadsheet to document the design process and automate command line generation using the CONCATENATE function. Created a drawing to be used as a blueprint for each layer of the finite element (FE) model with keypoints, lines, and areas labelled. Thus, every layer of the FE model followed a consistent labelling pattern which allowed for each team member to work on the project in parallel with each other.
FEM (Bottom-up method)
After organizing the model into layers, the FE model was constructed by defining keypoint coordinates, creating lines use keypoints, creating areas using lines, setting line divisions, and then meshing. Hexahedral elements were created to use mapped meshing. A 2000 N axial load was appliedat the top of the model with the bottom of both arms fully constrained.
Design Optimization
Performed design optimization in ANSYS with 21 design variables. Due to the high number of design variables that were dependent on each other, we had to determine ranges that each variable could change without compromising any features or shapes. The base model was saved and loaded each time to save time on running the code. Each simulation took around 2 hours, so each team member took on a set of variables to validate. Eventually, a successful run occurred.
Teamwork
Prepared and delivered a successful and compelling presentation to peers, showcasing our team’s project and results.
3. Results
- Reduced total volume by 52.3%.
- FE model was made of 130k+ hexahedral elements: 8 layers (with fillets), 510 volumes, 1766 areas, 2036 lines, and 776 keypoints.
- Final run code consisted of 7584 lines of code.