CAE를 활용한 경량 알루미늄 너클 개발

Nowadays, vehicles are essential to reduce carbon dioxide and improve fuel economy according to environmental regulations. Thereby vehicle companies are under researches on lightweight vehicle. Reducing weight of suspension system was difficult matter because suspension system is key security parts in the vehicle. A knuckle of the suspension system is a key part which has a great influence on vehicle’s steer ability and stability. For this reason, strength and durability must be considered as important matters during development of the knuckle. So it mainly made from steel. But production of aluminum knuckle has become possible due to the development of high strength aluminum alloy and manufacturing processes. The aluminum knuckle’s weight is lighter than a steel knuckle but other performances such as strength, vibration characteristics and clearance between related parts could be worse. So that must be carefully considered during the product development. In this study, CAE was used for structural design optimization. It helped the development of aluminum knuckle with reducing trial and error and solving predicted problems in advance. Structural analysis of aluminum knuckle was optimized by comparison of the steel knuckle with the aluminum knuckle. The optimized aluminum knuckle by structural analysis was checked on durability test and modal test. Aluminum knuckle has achieved lightweight and improved on natural frequency. Also the aluminum knuckle has confirmed equivalent durability with the steel knuckle.