Proceedings of the 3rd World Congress on Mechanical, Chemical, and Material Engineering (MCM'17)

Rome, Italy – June 8 – 10, 2017

Paper No. ICMIE 120
ISSN: 2369-8136
DOI: 10.11159/icmie17.120

Stress Behaviour Improvement of Automobile Flywheel Under High

Centrifugal Forces
Çağlar İmer, Samet Kartal, Mehmet Onur Genç
Valeo Automotive
Bursa, Turkey
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract - Clutch components rotating at high speed remain under the influence of high centrifugal forces. Therefore at the high
rotational speed flywheel is subjected to extreme forces that may cause severe cracks and breakages. During driving condition vehicle
can be used in different engine RPM. Burst test validates the mechanical robustness of the flywheel under various rotational speeds. In
this study finite element analysis has been used for calculating stress values of flywheel. In order to simulate burst test, finite element
method can be used that provides estimation instead of prototypes production which causes time and money consumption.
Additionally design of experiment method has been used for obtaining the response surface that approximates the stress behaviour of
automobile flywheel. Data fitting method was applied to determine objective function. Two shape parameters have been selected for
observing change of stress value. It provides strong correlation between fea results and data fittings calculation that gives extra
contribution to reduce the design process.

Keywords: centrifugal forces, flywheel, experiment method, stress replacement, response surface

1. Introduction
Flywheel is one of the main component of the transmission system in terms of safety. The flywheel is directly exposed
to high centrifugal forces. Due to the importance of the flywheel, the durability of the flywheel must be investigated under
high centrifugal force.
In this study, flywheel verification process is described with simulation results. As a result of the study, developed
finite element model is matched well with the experimental results.
Charles (2012) investigate in the study mechanical properties of flywheel in terms of energy storage and mass
regulator component. Flywheel is the energy storage component that keeps the dissipated energy with the high inertia and
material characteristic. This study includes the experimental and mathematical approach to powertrain system analysis. In
order to make further analysis flywheel constraints are defined coming from rotational forces and heat transfer [1].
Abdullah et al. (2013) studied the frictional clutch components relations in terms of stress and deformations. In the study
contact points during driving condition were investigated by using finite element method. Prominent conclusion is clutch
system is subjected to dynamic forces during high rotational speed and contact points between clutch cover and flywheel
should be optimized to reduce stress that cause crack and breakage [2].
Maninder et al. (2015) studied in this paper the optimization of flywheel mass by using computer aided analysis.
Flywheel optimized geometry was investigated by using specific energy calculation in terms of components life limit.
Authors emphasized in the study that flywheel geometry, mass and stress distribution have strong relation with each
constraint [3]. In this study automotive flywheel is subjected to FEA analysis to investigate burst improvement by response
surface methodology. This paper approaches to stress improvement to vehicle flywheel both FEA and optimization
methodology.

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2. Material and Method

2.1. FEA Study

In this study, the components in vehicles subjected to high rotational speed are investigated in terms of the stress
behavior on design variations with FEA analysis for real conditions. In order to validate the design of flywheel under high
speed condition, burst test is performed with adapted bench test which simulates as in vehicle. Duration of preparing of test
parts takes longer times due to prototyping processes such as casting mold production and finding available schedule in
serial production lines of automotive industry plants. Also implementation of flywheel prototypes with different designs is
cost due to produce a casting mold for each flywheel design. Therefore finite element solutions are helpful to improve the
flywheel design in short time.
Flywheel design target is to withstand at 12000 rpm to simulate the worst condition in vehicle. Experimental data
presents that maximum stress area located near the clutch cover fixation holes due to severe section transitions. Also it is
known that flywheel is safety component for powertrain systems and on the study stress behaviours near the critical
location improvement was aimed. At the beginning of the study, flywheel was designed without slots in figure 1. Slot
geometry was considered to replace the maximum stress from critical area to another non-functional area. Previous design
was gathering the stress into severe sections such as holes.

Without slots With slots

Fig. 1: Design creation with slots.

In the finite element model, there are three components following flywheel, ring gear and a fake crankshaft. Fake
crankshaft was fixed from engine side. As in shown figure 2, two contact areas were defined in simulation model. First
contact is between crankshaft and flywheel. Contact type was chosen as frictional. Second contact is between ring gear and
flywheel due to shrink fitting. This contact type was chosen as frictional.
In terms of cost and machining, laminar cast iron is practical solution for flywheels. Therefore cast iron material was
chosen as GJL300 laminar cast iron. Ring gear material was chosen C40 steel material. If we compare the tensile strength
of ring gear and flywheel material, ring gear material have higher tensile strength than flywheel material. Maximum von-
mises stress was investigated on flywheel with the guide of this information.
Centrifugal forces effect mostly areas which are located at severe section changes and outer diameters. Therefore
fixation holes should be well meshed to calculate stress level which closed to real conditions. At the mesh model, outer
shapes were meshed with tetrahedron elements as shown in figure 3. Less critical areas were meshed with quad elements to
decrease the element numbers of model. Thus, calculation time was minimized for each design variation.

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 Boundary Conditions

Frictional contact between flywheel and Frictional contact between flywheel and Axial forces under bolt head
crankshaft ring gear
Fig. 2: Contact types.

Fig. 3: Mesh model.

Fig. 4: Design parameters (Slot width and slot depth).

2.2. Data Fitting

Flywheel burst simulations which give stress value induced of flywheel at maximum engine speed is necessary to
verify flywheel design. A mathematical model analysis run is executed about five hours for flywheel burst simulation.
Therefore in this study, response surface methodology is used for obtaining objective function of flywheel stress
behaviour. In order to obtain objective function firstly geometrical model of flywheel was created. General shape of
flywheel was designed according to limitations of clutch house space. With slot geometry subtraction flywheel design was
finalized. Slot geometry subtraction was built for stress replacement as cyclic symmetric at 120°. Two shape parameters
were determined for slot geometry that effects to stress replacement directly.
Then a mathematical model was created that best fits to the data which collected from experimental flywheel burst test
results. According to full factorial design with four level and two parameters as shown in figure 4, 24 = 16 finite element
analyses were executed for define a surface that approximates the behaviour of the objective function. According to design
of experiment results, objective function was constructed as second degree polynomial. Objective function;
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 𝒇 = 𝟐𝟐𝟒. 𝟔𝟖𝟕 + 𝟒. 𝟏𝟑𝟓𝒙𝑿 + (𝟒𝟕𝟓𝟒. 𝟔𝟒𝟕/𝒀) + (−𝟗𝟕𝟕𝟖𝟏. 𝟔𝟔𝟑/(𝒀𝟐 )) (1)

3. Analysis and Discussions

After model creation，sixteen fea study were implemented to find von-mises stress level against to change of slot
width and depth. As shown on figure 5, most critical areas are similar locations at outer diameter and on fixation holes as
mentioned as described in section 2.1. The both parameters especially were selected applicable values according to design
constraints. Calculated results at 12000 rpm with simulations create an indicator database to find the relationship between
two design parameters and maximum von-mises stress. As showed in table 1, sixteen fea results are listed according to
two design parameters.

Fig. 5: Some pictures from different fea results.

If listed results are filtered, it is seen that slot design helped to decrease the stress level from situation of initial
flywheel design. Maximum stressed area was relieved thanks to another severe section changes on flywheel. The best
improvement was seen with design number 1 includes depth 5 mm and width 68 mm parameters. In initial design,
maximum stressed area was 318.42 MPa on fixation hole at outer diameter. Thus, there was a stress decrease of 7.6% at
maximum stressed area from 318.42 MPa to 294.07 MPa. But some design parameters could not improve the stress level.
Design number 15 includes 8mm slot depth and 48mm slot width. This parameter combination cannot give an
improvement due to that it has similar results about 318 MPa as in initial design.

Table 1: Fea results and objective function results at 12000 rpm.

Slot Depth (X) Slot Width (Y) Objective Function Fea Result Deviation between Fea Result and
Result Objective Function
Initial Design Not available Not available Not available 318.42 Not available.
Design 1 5 68 294,136726 294,07 -0,02%
Design 2 5 58 298,2715907 298,12 -0,05%
Design 3 5 48 301,9771879 301,3 -0,22%
Design 4 5 38 302,7684564 305,43 0,88%
Design 5 6 68 298,271726 295,42 -0,96%
Design 6 6 58 302,4065907 299,72 -0,89%
Design 7 6 48 306,1121879 301,22 -1,60%
Design 8 6 38 306,9034564 305,33 -0,51%
Design 9 7 68 302,406726 301,78 -0,21%
Design 10 7 58 306,5415907 308,21 0,54%
Design 11 7 48 310,2471879 310,65 0,13%
Design 12 7 38 311,0384564 312,83 0,58%
Design 13 8 68 306,541726 309,47 0,96%
Design 14 8 58 310,6765907 314,79 1,32%
Design 15 8 48 314,3821879 318,67 1,36%
Design 16 8 38 315,1734564 322,49 2,32%

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 Additionally, objective function results were listed on table 1. Used parameters in fea calculations re-calculated with
objective function equations. The both calculations of objective function and fea result were compared to show the
deviation ratio. Comparing to simulated parameters in finite element models, objective function have maximum 2.32 %
deviation in terms of stress level. If it is considered with calculation time of 16 finite element models, they take
approximately 80 hours totally. Whereas objective function can easily calculate the results in only a few seconds by any
parameters which in range of maximum and minimum design constraints.
According to objective function results, response surface is shown on figure 6. When the response surface is analyzed,
it is observed that the results do not change with linear trend. In terms of better stress level, slot width should be wider and
slot depth should be lesser depth in this type of flywheel which has similar design. With response surface method, best
parameter combination can be chosen on graph. In this way, a fast prediction can be performed in the beginning of the
project.

Fig. 6: Response surface graph of objective function.

4. Conclusion
Today, new engine technology requirements are high speed, lower volume and safety become important in automotive
industry. These constraints make hard to create robust flywheel design. Flywheel is not only torque transfer component
also robust design of flywheel has importance due to safety of driver and passengers. Therefore improvement of stress
level on flywheel is important design progress.
After design change with slots creation, stress improvement was observed. The study shows that slot design helps to
replace the maximum stress from most critical area to non-functional area. Sixteen different design studies were realized
with fea calculations to find the experimental values. With design of experiment study, flywheel development process has
been completed faster and cheaper. It will be used an optimization method for robust and efficient flywheel design process
on next time studies.

References
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Scientific Research, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1620-1624, 2012.
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Clutch System,” Tribology in Industry, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 155-162, 2013.
[3] S. Bhardwaj Maninder, “Design and Analysis of Light Weight Motor Vehicle Flywheel,” International Journal
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