IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol.

6, Issue 02, 2018 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

Design and Analysis of SUV Car Chassis Frame

K. Ajay Kumar1 Katkam Surender2 A. Sampath Goud3 Arvind Goyal4 K. Rajesh Kumar5
1,2,3,4
Students 5Associate Professor
1,2,3,4,5
Department of Mechanical Engineering
1,2,3,4,5
Vidya Jyothi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Abstract— SUV Car chassis frame is the structural backbone
of four wheel vehicle segment. The main function of the
chassis frame is to carry the animate and inanimate load
placed upon it. The chassis frame has to bear the stresses
developed and deformation occurs in it and that should be
within a limit. This current paper presents the study of the
design, fabrication and the stress developed in chassis frame
as well as deformation of chassis frame. The stress and
deformation has been calculated for the chassis frame and the
analysis has been done for the validation on the chassis frame.
The model of the chassis has been developed in Pro-E
(CREO) 4.0 and static structural analysis has been done in
ANSYS 17.0.
Key words: Deformed Chassis Frame, Pro-E (CREO) 4.0,
ANSYS 17.0

I. INTRODUCTION
Automobile chassis usually refers to the lower part of the
vehicle including the tires, engine, frame, driveline and
suspension. Out of these, the frame gives necessary support
to the vehicle components placed on it. Also the frame should Fig. 1: Actual Beam Chassis Frame
be so strong enough to resist impact load, twist, vibrations During the conceptual design stage, a Mechanical
and other bending stresses. The design of chassis frame is Engineer must have complete understanding of various
fully on conceptual basis and the objectives are to create stresses prevalent in different areas of the chassis components
conceptual design for an automotive chassis which will and frames, such that whenever changes to the design is
utilize standard components. Along with the strength, an required it is easy to implement and have less impact on
important consideration in the chassis design is to increase overall project cost, the weight and structural characteristics
the bending stiffness and torsion stiffness. In the conventional are mostly unknown since detailed and overall vehicle
design procedure, the design is based on the strength and is information is not available at the early stage. Generally the
more focused to increase the stiffness of the chassis, with very vehicle design starts up with conceptual studies to define size,
small consideration to the weight of the chassis frame. This number and location of un driven and drive axles, type of
design procedure involves the adding of structural cross suspension, engine power, transmission, tire size and axle
member to the existing chassis frame to improve its torsional reduction ratio, cab size and auxiliary equipment. The
stiffness. As a result, weight of the chassis frame increases. selected configuration has to be more precise and accurate for
This increase in weight of the chassis frame, fuel efficiency the considered transportation tasks and should match the
is reduced and increases the overall cost due to extra material. existing production line [3]. A number of analytical,
Thus, the design of the chassis frame with proper stiffness and numerical and experimental methods are kept in mind for the
strength is necessary [1]. stress analysis of the car frames.
The design of a chassis frame of SUV car structure
is of fundamental importance to the overall vehicle II. METHODOLOGY
performance. The vehicle structure plays an important role in
the reliability of the vehicle. Generally, car is a motor vehicle This study has been dealt with two parts. First part of this
which is designed for carrying the attached weights, such as study involves modeling of chassis frame and analysis of
the engine, transmission and suspension as well as the stresses and displacement under actual load conditions. CAD
passengers and payload. The major focus in the automobile models of chassis frame were developed in 3D modeling
manufacturing industries is to design vehicles with more software, such as Pro-E (CREO) 4.0.The stress analysis and
payload capacity Using high strength steels than the stiffness of the models are then obtained in ANSYS 17.0.
conventional ones are possible with corresponding increase While the second part is shape optimization as weight or mass
in payload capacity [2]. reduction purpose by utilizing Aluminum material AL6063-
The chassis frame of SUV car which is the main part T6. Weight of the proposed design of chassis frame is then
of the vehicle that combines the main car component systems being compared to the current component that has been used
such as the axles, suspension, power train, cab and trailer etc., for the previous existing chassis model [4]. Methodology
as shown in Figure-1, in 3-D modeling form is one of the flow chart in figure-2.
possible reasons for weight reduction.

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 322

 Design and Analysis of SUV Car Chassis Frame
(IJSRD/Vol. 6/Issue 02/2018/091)

A. Calculation of Load
1) Axial Loads:
There are two axial load acting on the chassis frame such as
tensile load and compressive load [5]. The stress due to this
load can be found out using the following formulae:
Tensile Load (Pt) = Tensile stress x Area
Compressive Load (Pc) = Compressive stress x Area
2) Bending Load:
This load acts on the chassis frame due to the weight of the
vehicle and this tends to bend the chassis frame downward
away from the centerline [5]. Total inertia bending load is
given by,
Bending Load (Fb) = 𝝆𝑨𝒕𝑳 (𝜽+∅)/𝟐* N
B. Calculation of Stresses
1) Stress Due to Axial Loads:
The force of resistance per unit area, offered by a body against
deformation is known as stress. This is given by,
Stress (σ) = 𝑷/𝑨
2) Stress due to Inertia bending force:
Inertia bending load sets up a stress which would be tensile
on one side of the chassis and Compressive on another side
and that these stress change sign each half revolution [5].
The bending moment at any section „x‟ m from the small end
is given by,
M = 𝑥/𝑎 {1− 𝑥2/𝐿2 }
The stress is calculated by,
σb =𝑀/Z

IV. MESHED MODEL OF CHASSIS FRAME

Meshing of the chassis frame model is done in ANSYS 17.0.
The meshed model is shown in figure- 4 and the number of
nodes and elements are given in table 1.
Fig. 2: Methodology flow chart

III. MODELING OF EXISTING CHASSIS FRAME

The model of chassis frame which has been used currently as
per the dimension is created in Pro-E (CREO) .0 as shown in
Figure 3.The model is then saved in IGES format which can
be directly imported into ANSYS 17.0.

Fig. 4: Meshed Model of Chassis frame

NUMBER OF NODES 311843
NUMBER OF ELEMENTS 141983
Table 1: Nodes and Elements of Model

V. MATERIAL OF MODEL FRAME

Fig. 3: 3D modeling of chassis frame For the frame geometry of chassis commonly steel and its
DESIGN OF CHASSIS FRAME alloys are used. For the frame models, variety of materials,
composite materials and different kind of alloys like steel,
Carbon/Epoxy, E-Glass/Epoxy, S-Glass/Epoxy, etc. can be
used. In the present study ALUMINIUM AL 6063-T6 is used
and its properties are in table 2 and table 3.

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 323

 Design and Analysis of SUV Car Chassis Frame
(IJSRD/Vol. 6/Issue 02/2018/091)

MATERIAL ALUMINIUM(AL 6063-T6)

Modulus of Elasticity E 69.5GPa
Poisson’s Ratio 0.33
Tensile Yield Strength 160 MPa
Tensile Ultimate Strength 195 MPa
Density 2700 kg/m3
Thermal Conductivity 237 w/m-k
Table 2: Material Properties of chassis frame
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
Quantity % weight (Max.)
Chromium(Cr) 0.1
Fig. 7: Von Misses stress of AL 6063-T6
Iron( Fe) 0.35
Magnesium(Mg) 0.45-0.9
Manganese(Mn) 0.1
Silicon(Si) 0.2
Titanium(Ti) 0.1
Copper(Cu) 0.1
Aluminium(Al) Balance
Zinc(Zn) 0.1
Table 3: Chemical composition of AL6063-T6

VI. ANALYSIS
Fig. 8: Maximum Principal stress of AL 6063-T6
A. Loads in a Static Analysis
Static analysis is used to determine the force in structure,
displacement, stress, strain in the static analysis externally
applied forces and steady state inertia forces are considered.

Fig. 9: Maximum Shear stress of AL 6063-T6

B. Procedure for Static Analysis
There are three main steps involve in static analysis.
Fig. 5: Loading condition of chassis frame 1) Build the model
2) Apply load and obtain solution
3) Review the result
The deformation and the stresses developed in the
analysis are given in figures 6-9
Previous model of the chassis frame which is made up of
steel (mild steel) having yield strength 250 Mpa and mass is
about 510.37 kg has been compared to AL6063-T6 for
analysis having yield strength 310 Mpa and mass is about
311.59 kg. The percentage mass reduction of the chassis
frame was found to be 0.31%. The optimized value of the
result is given in table 4.
Fig. 6: Total Deformation of AL 6063-T6 Aluminium
S.No. Parameters Mild Steel alloy
(Al 6063-T6)
1 Weight 510.37 kg 311.59kg
Principal
2 44140Pa 46907Pa
Stresses
3 Deformation 0.032874mm 0.034187mm
Table 4:

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 324

 Design and Analysis of SUV Car Chassis Frame
(IJSRD/Vol. 6/Issue 02/2018/091)

VII. CONCLUSION
The chassis frame has been modeled using Pro-E(CREO) 4.0
and analyzed in ANSYS 17.0. The various parameters such
as Nodal displacement, stress distribution are completely
analyzed and studied. The study shows that the area where
the stress concentration is maximum due to applied load and
the portions that have to be considered in the design of chassis
frame in order to avoid frequent failures to improve its
reliability. Stress analysis of chassis has been done to predict
the weak points.

REFERENCES
[1] International Journal of Advances in Engineering &
Technology, Nov., 2014. ©IJAET ISSN: 22311963.
[2] Murali M.R. Krishna, “Chassis Cross-Member Design
Using Shape Optimization”, International Congress and
Exposition Detroit, Michigan. February 23-26, 1998.
[3] PSG Design Data Book for Standard Data-M/s
Kalaikathir Achchagam, Coimbatore2004
[4] Machine design by R S Khurmi, S. Chand and Co. Ltd.,
New delhi-2001.
[5] A text book of “DESIGN OF MACHINE ELEMENT”
by V.B Bhandari, Tata McGraw Hill Education Pvt. Ltd.

All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com 325