TOPOLOGICAL OPTIMIZATION OF THE STRUCTURAL OF A STEERING KNUCKLE FOR THE PUSHROD AUTOMOTIVE SUSPENSION SYSTEM

Resumo

The steering knuckle is a fundamental part of automobiles, being responsible for the direct integration
of the scrolling, steering, braking and suspension systems into the vehicle's chassis. Pushrod type suspension
incorporates a double arm system overlapped with rods to activate the damping system, favoring the approximation
between the vehicle's center of gravity and the ground, improving the vehicle's performance at high speeds. The
knuckle undergoes severe efforts under conditions of use, and catastrophic failures can occur in certain cases. This
paper present a static structural analysis of the knuckle under impact loads, maneuver in short radius curves and
maneuver in long curves followed by a topological optimization aiming to improve the stress distribution,
minimizing the weight of the structural component for critical conditions of use. The topological optimization
performed on the knuckle employed a generic CAD model, made of aluminum alloy Al7075-T6, which allowed
the mass to be reduced by 35,439%, minimizing the stress gradient by 34,614%, the maximum stress of which was
186.65MPa