Failure Analysis of a Wheel Hub of Formula Student Racing Car

摘要

The aim of this project is to investigate the causes of the failure of an FSAE (Formula SAE) car front wheel hub which broke down during testing. A Formula student car's hub has to sustain forces in various dynamic conditions like cornering, braking and during accelerating. The wheel hub was manufactured with Aluminium 6061-T6 alloy which was anodized to a depth of 25 micron. The SEM analysis of the failed component was performed to identify the root causes of the failure of the hub. The finite element analysis of the hub was carried out in order to study the distribution of stresses which were found to be higher near the holes in the hub. It was established that the combined effect of bending, torsional shear and axial stresses led to the initiation of a crack which propagated during testing of the car ultimately resulting in the catastrophic failure of the hub.