STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF STEERING YOKE OF AN AUTOMOBILE FOR WITHSTANDING TORSION/ SHEAR LOADS

Abstract

The steering columns in a steering system are one of the main devices of an automobile. It is a very important part to attain stability and steady movement of the vehicle. It consists of two yokes, one on each shaft, connected by a cross-shaped intermediate member i.e. spider. Motion transmission system of vehicles consist several components which sometimes encounter unfortunate failures. Some common reasons for the failures may be manufacturing and design faults, maintenance faults, raw material faults, material processing faults as well as the user originated faults. In this paper finite element analysis of the component is carried out to find the stress and displacement of the final product. For modeling of the component, CATIA V5 R17 software is used. Preprocessing work like meshing and analysis work is carried out in HYPERWORKS software. Using FEA analysis, we can identify the nature and characteristics of stresses acting on the yoke and also evaluate the influence of the loads/ mass/ geometry/ boundary conditions over the yoke.