To Study the Effect of Various Geometric Parameters on the Performance of the Twist Beam

Abstract

In current automotive market, to cope up with the growing competition, all automotive companies are striving to provide maximum features from minimum cost to the customer. Hence, a lot of concentration is provided on design, manufacturing and supply chain optimization. Design stage, being a very initial stage of development, has a great importance from optimization point of view. Chassis and suspension system are major commodities from functioning as well as cost point of view. Every addition of mass to the vehicle affects its performance and increases the overall cost. Hence, it is of immense importance to make effective use of material. In this project, the study is concentrated on the Rear Twist Beam (RTB), a suspension component of passenger vehicles, to evaluate the effect of different geometric parameters of the beam on its performance. The outcome of project should provide a guideline to decide on cross-section and size of the beam for the design assignment. Here, RTB models with six different cross-sections, two manufacturing methods and four different effective lengths are compared for static and durability performance. The results of the study will be incorporated in the initial design procedure, which currently depends a lot on the experience of the designer. From the results of initial study, a base model design is modified to achieve better static performance with reduction in mass and overall cost. The final design iteration shows close to 21% reduction in mass of the beam with significant reduction in bending compliance. The durability analysis shows failure in the region adjacent to the weld. This issue can be resolved by strengthening the weld area and area adjacent to that in future iterations.