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Fatigue Life Prediction of Lap Welds in Axle Housings Using Notch Stress Modelling Approach and Design Modifications to Overcome the Failure

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Abstract

Axle housing in the axle assembly of medium and heavy commercial vehicle is the structural load-bearing member supporting platform payloads for different road conditions which has an impact on the axle through the suspension systems. Axle housings are fabricated structures from hot formed structural plates integrated using MIG welding. This paper presents life prediction of one of the critical weld in the axle housing joining dome cover with the banjo housing as cracking of the weld leads to oil leakages and the entire transmission fails without oil. Failure of root crack in the weld noticed at 0.4 million cycles in indoor bench testing against the minimum life requirement of 0.6 million cycles. Similar failure noticed in customer vehicles in the range of 0.3 million km’s. To analyse the failure, life prediction using CAE is carried out as per IIW modelling guidelines of nominal stress and notch stress approaches of weld roots and toe. Analysis reveals weld roots act as weld notches and life calculation of the weld using notch stress approach, matches with the experimental results. Also, the stress concentration factors proposed by IIW for MIG weld match with the design-calculated results. Since the weld root stress is higher than the acceptance, design improvement is carried out to reduce the stress values. Banjo bowl transition radius is increased to have a higher section modulus there by stresses has been reduced from 580 to 320 MPa and life improvement in the weld root by 44% increase. Life correlation achieved from design-calculated values using notch stress approach with the experimental results. Also, field performance of the weld cracks leading to oil leakages in the housings of the customer vehicle has reduced by almost 90%, resulting in warranty cost reduction in the commercial vehicles.

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Abbreviations

IIW:

International Institute of Welding

CAE:

Computer Aided Engineering

MIG:

Metal Inert Gas

MPa:

Mega Pascal

σt :

Stress Normal to the Weld Throat

τt :

Shear stress along the fillet

σn :

Nominal weld stress

T:

Weld throat size in mm

K f :

Stress concentration factor

r:

Fictitious root radius

g:

Acceleration due to Gravity

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Jamshedpur, Jamshedpur, 831014, India

    M. Prabhakar, Anil Kumar Prasad & Mani Kant Paswan

Authors
  1. M. Prabhakar
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  2. Anil Kumar Prasad
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  3. Mani Kant Paswan
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Correspondence to M. Prabhakar.

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Prabhakar, M., Prasad, A.K. & Paswan, M.K. Fatigue Life Prediction of Lap Welds in Axle Housings Using Notch Stress Modelling Approach and Design Modifications to Overcome the Failure. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 20, 995–1006 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-020-00904-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-020-00904-y

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