DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF T ATA 2518TC TRUCK CHASSIS FRAME WITH VARIOUS CROSS SECTIONS USING CAE TOOLS

Chassis is the French word was used to denote the frame parts or main structure of vehicle, which is now, denotes the whole vehicle except body in case of heavy vehicles (that is vehicle without body is called chassis). In case of light vehicles of mono construction, it denotes the whole vehicle except additional fittings in the body. Automobile chassis usually refers to the lower body of th e vehicle including the tires, engine, frame, driveline and suspension. Out of these, the frame provides necessary support to the vehicle components placed on it . Role of the chassis frame is to provide a structural platform that can connect the front and rear suspension without excessive deflection. Also, it should be rigid enough to withstand the shock, twist, vibration and other stresses caused due to sudden braking, acceleration, shocking road condition, centrifugal force while cornering and forces indu ced by its components. So, strength and stiffness are two main criteria for the design of the chassis. The present study has analyzed the various literatures. After a careful analysis of various research studies conducted so for it has been found that th ere is the scope of optimizing different factors like weight, stress - strain values and deformation etc. by varying cross sections for modeling and analysis. This paper describes the design and Structural analysis of the heavy vehicle chassis with constrain ts of maximum stress, strain and deflection of chassis under maximum load. In the present work, the dimension of the TATA 2518TC chassis is used for the structural analysis of the heavy vehicle chassis by considering three different cross - sections, Namely C, I, and Hollow Rectangular (Box) type cross sections subjected to the same conditions. A three dimensional solid Modeled in the CAE software CATIA and analyzed in ANSYS. The numerical results are validated with ana lytical calculation consi dering the stress distribution and deformation .