PSI - Issue 14

Varatharaj Neelakandan et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 14 (2019) 345–353 Varatharaj Neelakandan / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2018) 000–000

352

8

5. Summary and Conclusion The housing bracket over designed material and unwanted material additions was removed based on the analysis results of the initial level finite element analysis for the existing housing bracket. The theoretical calculation method was followed to obtain the bearing force, applied load and boundary condition for the finite element analysis and establishment of procedure.

Figure 10: Housing bracket design

Existing housing bracket weight of 1070 grams was reduced to 886 grams which is almost 21% of weight reduction is achieved as shown the Figure 10: Housing bracket design During the optimisation of the housing bracket casting, manufacturing feasibility has been thoroughly studied and defined the design rules for the optimisation. Those are housing wall thickness, transition radius and fillet for the cast flow and porosity factor. The Fatigue factor of safety is maintained for minimum 1.5 considering the starter motor functional operation in mechanical and thermal environmental according to the customer specifications.

Figure 11: Weight and fatigue life optimisation results The weight and fatigue life optimsation results as shown the Figure 11: Weight and fatigue life optimisation results was presented with methods of robust design to meet the customer demand as well as to aligning to the vehicle operating conditions. In the optimization of housing bracket, finite element analysis software used for calculating the stress and fatigue life and then the weight was optimized to 20%. The optimized new housing bracket was proposed for new starter projects to capture new business with increased cost margin.