Field Failure Simulation of a Non-reactive Suspension Tie Rod for Heavy Commercial Vehicle Using a Road Simulator

The suspension system in a vehicle isolates the frame and body from road shocks and vibrations which would otherwise be transferred to the passengers and goods. Heavier goods vehicles use tandem axles at the rear for load carrying. Both the axles should be inter-connected to eliminate overloading of any one axle when this goes over a bump or a ditch. One of the inter-connecting mechanism used is leaf spring with tie rod, bell crank & linkages, when the first rear axle moves over a bump, the linkages equalize the loading on the second rear axle.

This paper details about the failure analysis methodology to simulate the tie rod field failure using a six poster road simulator and to identify the root cause of the failure and further corrective actions. The methodology involves the study of field usage conditions and the nature of failure, strain gauging and instrumentation of tie rod, strain and load analysis on tie rod at various conditions, various experiments to re-create or simulate the failure, identification of failure modes and root cause analysis. Various conditions were simulated using six poster road simulator and certain conditions seemed to have significant impact and the failure was simulated.