Abstract

Stress analysis connected with the brake assembly of heavy vehicles is a complicated problem in view of the machine elements involved. The hub (on the rear axle), the rim (holding the wheel) and the drum (holding the brake shoe) experience severity of loads. While the vehicle is being driven the power is transmitted from the hub to the rim. When the brake is applied, the brake drum receives the braking torque and communicates it to the rim. Analysis associated with braking is actually transient since the braking torque varies with time in a short period of time whereas the one associated with driving is predominantly steady while the vehicle moves with uniform speed. None of them can be considered rotationally symmetric. Even though 3D brick element can be used for modelling all the three members, the computational effort needed to handle the problem of braking becomes extremely cumbersome. Hence a compromise solution is presented in this paper.

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