Radial impact test of aluminium wheels—Numerical simulation and experimental validation

Safety is a crucial issue for automotive wheels, normally subject to severe dynamic working conditions. Severe indoor tests have been conceived and standardised to guarantee the required safety standards of vehicle wheels. This paper is devoted to the analysis and virtual simulation of the radial impact test of aluminium wheels, one of the most severe tests the wheel has to pass before production. The radial impact test is simulated, for a number of different aluminium wheels, by means of a finite element model. The model includes tyre, wheel, striker and supporting structure. The actual structure of the tyre is modelled. Tyre damping is included through a Rayleigh model, whose parameters are experimentally identified. The wheel material inhomogeneity is taken into account by assigning different stress/strain curves to wheel rim and spokes. A wheel instrumented with strain gauges has been used to validate the finite element model. An additional set of four families of different wheel types, equipped with different tyres, has been considered to asses the experimental variability and to compare the outputs of the corresponding impact models realized by the same procedure. The finite element model of the radial impact test has proven to be effective in reproducing the final plastic deformation of the wheel and thus to predict the compliance of the wheel design with the requirements coming from standards.