OPTIMIZATION STUDY ON TOW HOOK OF A COMMERCIAL VEHICLE TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE AT DIFFERENT LOADING CONDITIONS

G Pruthvi Raj, Ganesha B

Abstract: Growing competition in automotive market makes it more and more necessary to reduce the development time and cost of the product development process. One of the most costly phases in the vehicle development process is the field durability test and high expenses for this phase can be attributed to the number of prototypes used and time needed for its execution. Also, multiple iterations of designing, building and testing prototypes are no longer affordable against the time and cost constraints for developing a competitive product. It became necessary to come up with innovative solutions which are cost effective and effective and at the same time which will meet the performance requirement, to sustain in growing market. A step towards frugal engineering, engineering is to replace number of subassemblies in the vehicle with a single multifunctional invention. Today, analytical tools in the form of computer simulation have been developed to such a level that they reliably predict performance. Hardware prototypes cannot be made in early design phase, however, today with the use of Computer Aided Engineering tools virtual models can be created to accurately represent physical models and to take right decisions at the right time. Design of integrated multifunctional module for Heavy commercial vehicle will replace various subsystem including Towing device mountings, Suspension mounting systems, cabinet mounting systems with single design. This dissertation work involves evaluation of various loads coming on the tow hook model during different working conditions. Based on these loadings and space available the model will be designed which will meet the structural performance criteria. The main objective of the project is to lower the weight and cost of component, and provide more robust design to customer.

Keywords: Tow hook, static analysis and Modal analysis.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0408022