Failures and Rectification of Heavy Vehicle Chassis Due to Different Load Conditions

The automobile is divided into two parts body and chassis. The chassis is basic structure of a vehicle. It contains all the engine parts and power systems but the frame is the main portion of chassis which do not contain any other assemblies like engine parts. Its principle function is to safely carry the maximum load for all designed operating conditions. Composite material is a material composed of two or more distinct phases (matrix phase and dispersed phase) and having bulk properties significantly different from those of any of the constituents. Different types of composite material are available and one of it is Polymer matrix composite. It is very popular due to their low cost and simple fabrication methods. It has the benefits of high tensile strength, high stiffness and good corrosion resistance etc. At present this polymer matrix composite materials are used in aerospace, automobile industries due to it high strength to low weight ratio. In the present work, the dimensions of an existing heavy vehicle chassis of a TATA SE1613 TURBO TRUCK vehicle is taken for modelling and analysis. The vehicle frame is initially modelled by considering ‘C’ section and then with ‘H’ section, ‘I’ section in PRO-E Wild Fire 5.0 Software. After that imported to SOLID WORKS 2012. The analysis is done with Cast Iron, Steel, composite material Eglass/Epoxy, subjected to the same pressure as that of a steel frame. The design constraints are stresses and deformations. The results are then compared to finalize the best among all the three frames.