Effect of Casting Process on Strength Behaviour of Automotive Alloy Wheel

Strength and fatigue assessment of chassis components are essentially influenced by the material used and manufacturing processes chosen. The manufacturing process of chassis components decides the variation in the mechanical properties of the component, which has an impact on the strength/fatigue performance. Investigating the design concerning the manufacturing processes is vital to the industry. Standard computer aided engineering (CAE) procedures for validating the alloy wheels usually consider the material properties as homogeneous. There was a gap between test results and CAE durability prediction (as per standard procedure). Incorporating the manufacturing process related characteristics with the strength simulation will be a viable solution to reduce this gap. This study was intended at developing a procedure for the strength analysis of an alloy wheel by considering the manufacturing process. The effects of low-pressure die casting process on the microstructure and variation of mechanical properties of wheel are explored in this study. Casting simulation followed by a heat treatment process is performed for the wheel. Distribution of inhomogeneous mechanical properties (yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and elongation) is calculated and those properties are included in further analysis. By applying the progressive damage material model, strength analysis for a wheel is performed with including inhomogeneous properties.