Truck Underrun using SimScale for FEA

Last crawled date: 1 year, 10 months ago

Mass: 44.92 Kg
Minimum Thickness: 10 mm

Maximum Stress P1: 350.95 MPa
Maximum Stress P2: 324.22 MPa
Maximum Stress P3: 295.33 MPa

Maximum Deflection P1: 15.095 mm
Maximum Deflection P2: 2.636 mm
Maximum Deflection P2: 3.986 mm

As can be seen by the stress values, there are some areas that can still be optimized. The main goal I had for this particular design was to get the mass under 45 Kg while meeting the design criteria.

I ran through several different iterations that included getting the mass down below 48 Kg while keeping deflection between 2-6 mm all around. However, after thinking about this, I decided that weight would be a better area to focus on due to the affect in gas mileage over the lifetime of the truck and trailer.

I would continue to focus on optimizing the weight, but due to many difficulties encountered with SimScale, and the amount of time it takes to run through one complete iteration from uploading the STEP file to showing results, I set my goal at 45 Kg and stopped after reaching it. I believe that with extra time another 2-3 Kg could be saved.

UPDATE:

After seeing a few other people take my approach, I went ahead and did a single "T" beam as well. However, SimScale kept crashing (probably because everyone is getting this in last minute).

I tried to follow similar design ideas as my first model, but with a few changes to allow for the stress to propagate in an efficient way.

The mass of this model is 43.02 Kg, but like I said, I don't have any stress calculations. I have attached several renderings of it in this project.

As can be seen, manufacturing was not thought about (as per the problem statement). This would be a nightmare to actually fabricate as it is currently made, but with a few changes this could be made from as few as 3 pieces.