Durability testing methods to design lower control arm

What is durability?

We all know that each component on earth has its ability to withstand wear, pressure, and damage. Even earth itself has its durability, but it is much higher so that we are still surviving in this polluting, damaging, and pressurizing population.

Let's back to our concentrated area of mechanical components, of course. As thought provokes, each fashion fad away by time, similarly the component they wear with time—the damage due to continuous working in highly pressurizing areas. So, at last, you can say that durability is nothing but the ability to withstand wear, pressure, and damage.

Significance of durability in Automobile industries

And nowadays, the automobile sector is one of the enlarging fields of development. And the durability of automotive components is a critical aspect of product development. Failure in components will lead to serious damage to the design of the component itself and the entire system of the vehicle. This means the design of the component must focus on high durability to withstand for longer working life. The forces act on a lower control arm is important to determine so that we can design it on that basis.

Durability testing methods

There are various durability testing methods available to determine force acts on the lower control arm. First, we have to consider that the load's impact caused by road irregularities or bump is acted on the tire contact patch or at the wheel center. Depending on the type of load case, for example, 3g Bump, 2g Rebound, cornering, braking, reverse braking, and pothole breaking, we have to consider one of them that must produce the worst situation for operating lower control arm. We know that load cases consist of three-dimensional load components in x,y,z direction and are vertical load, longitudinal load, and lateral loads, respectively, on the lower control arm. Note that it may be possible that in different load cases some component is zero.
for instance,
consider 3g bump load case. in this, the only vertical component is present in the z-axis direction, other component x, the y-axis is zero.
For a detailed study, you have to go to mathematical modeling books on the automobile.

And after deciding the load case, we can use various durability test methods mention below to determine the load act on each part of the lower control arm.

1. 2g Twist
2. 3g Rear
3. 3g Front
4. 3-2-1 Front
5. 3-2-1 Rear

As we know, in an independent suspension system, each wheel is free of another wheel's movement. For the analysis purpose, you can consider a quarter car suspension model to determine the load imposed on the lower control arm during working. You can also use multi-body simulation or mathematical modeling of a double-wishbone suspension system. Mathematical modeling is much more complicated as it involves factor-like gravity, angular momentum, angular acceleration, frequency, etc... so it would be better to simulate software like MSc. ADAMS. MSc. ADAMS is multi-body dynamic simulating software. We have to create a quarter car suspension model with the constraint of movement and input with the real-world situation that generates load act on the lower control arm.

If you have any queries, then leave a comment below. I am glad for your feedback.