cae case studies: wheel rim analysis

A specialty motor cycle manufacturer wanted to analyze the existing design of their wheel rim for the given test specifications and evaluate displacements. In addition, they wanted Alcyon to propose optimizations in the design, and reanalyze the modified model for the original conditions. We used hexahedral solid elements for meshing, and contact elements between the free end and rim seat for the base design. After performing a linear static analysis (with contact), the design was modified and the analysis redone. Through this exercise, we achieved a weight reduction of about 15%, with no increase in deflections over the original design.
Wheel Rim mesh


Finite Element Analysis results for optimized wheel rim