Date

2012

Author

Demirel, Onur

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Due to the environmental issues related with fuel consumption and additionally passenger safety, aluminum space frame chassis is promising a big opportunity to design a lightweight structure with a high stiffness. Despite the lower stiffness and strength of aluminum in comparison to the conventional steel chassis, it can be compensated with changing thickness and design of structure by space frame geometry In this study, instead of using steel for automobile chassis, main goal is producing a space frame structure with using aluminum in an extrusion and sand casting processes and improve the stiffness. Chassis is designed according to calculations for moment of inertia, torsional and bending stiffness and in sufficient structural stiffness which can compete with steel chassis. Static finite element analysis was carried out to understand the chassis bending, torsional stiffness and fatigue behaviors. For frontal collisions, dynamic finite element analysis was also done to determine increases in the energy absorbance, specific energy absorbance and peak force for passenger safety. Aluminum profiles were produced by hot extrusion and joined with sand casting parts by TIG welding to manufacture a space frame structure. For main chassis profile, 6063 series of aluminum alloy was selected due to availability for extrusion process, weldability and having sufficient tensile strength and percent elongation and treatment response. Three point bending test was carried out to determine flexural strength. Moment of inertia calculations were done. Some parts such as side frame and shock absorber tower were produced by sand casting method. A similar composition to Silafont – 36 aluminum alloy was selected because of its high fluidity and good mechanical properties; despite it is a die cast alloy. Tensile, hardness and Charpy impact test were conducted to determine the mechanical characteristics of Silafont - 36 sand cast alloy. In addition to microstructure features and thermal analysis were also carried out to achieve sufficient alloy properties. Heat affected z one was investigated by hardness and tensile test to determine the mechanical properties change after welding process. In this space frame development study, A, B and C pillar parts were produced by Al – Si sand casting and T6 heat treatment then welded together by TIG welding and finally assembled on the bottom chassis frame produced by using 6063 extrudes welded by 4000 series electrodes. The space frame chassis was studied by also computer simulation to test and see critical points which must be modified during manufacturing. Besides the experimental and theoretical studies, space frame was also produced at the same time. According to the experimental results, the feasibility of the production of lightweight and solid chassis structure was achieved.

Subject Keywords

Aluminum alloys., Sand casting., Aluminum, Automobiles

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12614965/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/21789

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis