Railwheel and Track simulation using ANSYS Workbench

OBJECTIVE:

To perform static structural analysis on the rail wheel and track setup for different load cases using ANSYS Workbench. The equivalent stress, total deformation, and life have to be compared for the different load cases and to calculate a user-defined result for total deformation and compare it with the inbuilt result by ANSYS.

PROCEDURE FOR CASE SETUP:

1. Open ANSYS>>Drag and drop static structural model in the project schematic window.

2. Go to the engineering data. For this challenge, the material to be used is structural steel. It is shown in the figure below.

3. Go to the model tab for meshing and doing the case setup.

4. In the geometry rename the gear using a convenient name so that while assigning the boundary conditions it is easier to identify.

5. Go to contacts>>Define a frictional contact between the track and wheel. This is shown in the figure below.

A frictionless contact is defined between the wheel and the bearing.             

6. The next important step is to define the joints. A fixed joint is defined for the track. A translational joint is defined for the shaft. A planar joint is defined for the wheel. These are shown in the figure below.

7. For meshing, the face sizing option is used in the regions shown in the figure below. A mesh size of 35 mm is used in the faces.

The final meshed model is shown below.

8. The following analysis settings are defined for the simulation. For this analysis, the total number of steps used is 5. The definition for the first time step is shown below.

For the time steps 2-5, the analysis settings are shown in the figure below.

9. The joint load definitions are explained in the figure below. For the initial simulation, a bearing load of 500000 N is given.

10. From the solution option the results for total deformation, equivalent stress, and life are requested. After solving the solution, insert a user-defined for total deformation to check the results.

11. From the analysis settings, hit on solve to start the simulation.

12. The simulation has to be carried out for the next case by changing the bearing load.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

1. The total deformation for the two cases are shown in the figure below.

2. The equivalent stress observed is shown in the figures below.

3. The life of the assembly is shown in the figures below.

USER-DEFINED RESULT FOR A BEARING LOAD OF 100000 N

The user-defined output request is shown in the figure below.

The user-defined result obtained for total deformation is shown in the figure below.

ANIMATION FILES:

1. The total deformation animation files are shown below.

2. The equivalent stress obtained for both the loads is shown below.

CONCLUSION:

From the simulation, it can be seen that for both cases the solution converged without any errors.

The output parameters are tabulated below.

From the above table, it can be seen that the value of total deformation is the same for two cases with a value of 1001.5 mm. 

The equivalent stress observed for a load of 500000 N is higher with a value of 884.45 MPa. The value of equivalent stress observed for case 2 (for a load of 100000 N) is 172.13 MPa. 

The maximum life of the assembly remains the same for the two load cases with a value of 1e6.

Therefore, it can be concluded that the total deformation for the two cases remains the same. The equivalent stress observed in the load case 500000 N is higher. Life remains the same for the two cases. Also, the user-defined result for total deformation yielded the same result as that of total deformation for a load of 100000 N. Hence, all the objectives are satisfied.