Design and fabrication of a twist fixture to measure torsional stiffness of a pick up chassis

Abstract

Torsional stiffness is important parameter of chassis that affect the handling performance of chassis. Torsional stiffness can be determined using Finite Element Method (FEM) in early stage design of its. In order to validate the FEM result, experimental work needs to be done. The fixture has been design in simpler stucture, flexible for any kind of chassis and using a simple measurement's equipment such as dial indicator and load cell. Twist fixture has been designed for measuring of torsional stiffness of TATA cab chassis indirectly. The fixture measured the deflection caused by torsion subjected to the chassis. The torsional stiffness was calculated based on measured displacement of chassis. The result of comparison shows that the experimental results in agreement with the simulation results. Therefore, the simulation results of TATA cab chassis model are valid.