Advanced Novel Method to Simplify the Detailed Half-Shaft Model and Rapid Model Development

It has been previously shown that a detailed representation of the half-shaft correlates with test data. Developed detailed half-shaft models have shown improvement in capturing the half-shaft path at vehicle idle condition. Since the detailed half-shaft model needs to capture many components and requires detailed solid geometry for each component represented, full CAD model from half-shaft supplier or part scanning is required. Furthermore, despite the availability of CAD geometry, the detailed half-shaft will require solid meshing of the CV joints, the shaft, linearized springs and manual creation of the complex coordinate systems for orientation of contact points. This paper proposes an automated method to reduce the half-shaft model to a semi-elastic rigid body elements model with linearized spring components. The simplified model reduces the modeling time by eliminating solid meshing of components and automating complex coordinate system development without losing accuracy. Typically, the vehicle idle is in low frequencies range [f < 50 Hz] and this implies that most of half-shaft components will not have flexible modes at this frequency range. This theory and associated method was put on test by creating a simplified model and comparing the results to detailed half-shaft model and test data. The results show close correlation with both test and detailed half-shaft model. The simplified model was developed with a computer program and the rapid development of many half-shafts with basic measurements is possible. The simplified model limitation is in the configuration and type of half-shaft; the simplified model program can develop a particular family of half-shafts. Furthermore, for any special type of half-shaft, it needs to be modeled as detailed half-shaft. Simplified half-shaft provides reliable rapid development of half-shaft models for idle condition with reasonable accuracy.