Uncertainty Optimization Design of Vehicle Wheel Made of Long Glass Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic

The use of automobile lightweight is an effective measure to reduce energy consumption and vehicle emissions. The utilization of high-performance composite materials is an important way to achieve lightweight vehicles technically. The advantages of using thermoplastic composite wheels are: easy to form, high manufacturing efficiency, low cost and easy to recycle. This leads to broader application prospects. Taking composite anisotropy into consideration, the mechanical performance of a wheel made of long glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic (LGFT), is analysed using the finite element method (FEM). This is done by placing the wheel under a bending fatigue load simulation. According to the simulation results, the sample database is established by orthogonal experimental method on the Isight platform, and the approximate model is established by the Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Based on this model, uncertainty optimization analysis is then conducted on the wheel’s design using Sigma Principle whereby the optimization target is the mass minimization. The maximum deformation of the wheel and the stress on both sides of the spoke will serve as constraint conditions and the key dimension parameters of the wheel model will be taken as the design variables. The uncertainty optimization is based on the Sigma criterion, taking into consideration the wheel’s geometry and property-fluctuation materials. The feasibility of design schemes is then verified after comparison analysis between the optimization results and the simulation results obtained. The result shows that compared with deterministic optimization, though the weight of the wheel has slightly increased, the uncertainty optimization based on the Sigma criterion is much more robust and the reliabilities of the three constraints are all above 6 Sigma. The resulting optimized LGFT wheel weighs 5.28kg, which has a 5.5% more loss in weight than the initial target and is also 25.6% lighter than the counterpart wheel which is made of aluminum alloy. The desired design results is now achieved with this lightweight effect.