DESIGN OPTIMIZATION FOR WEIGHT REDUCTION OF LOCOMOTIVE WHEEL USING RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY

Manufacturing cost of locomotive wheel largely depends on mass of locomotive wheel and to reduce mass of wheel, design optimization is necessary. In this research the design of locomotive wheel is optimized considering hub radius and hub width as input parameters to DOE (Design of Experiments). Initially finite element analysis is performed under static structural loading conditions to determine equivalent stress and safety factor which is followed by design optimization using Response Surface Methodology. The software used for design and analysis is ANSYS.