A

Mini Project Report

on

Configuration and analysis of bicycle frames using ANSYS software

Submitted in partial fulfilment for the
Award of the Degree of

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
in
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

by
SHUBHAM AGRAWAL
(Registration No. 15BMEN009)

Under the Guidance of

MR. ANAND PRAKASH

(ASST. PROFESSOR, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPT.)

School of Engineering
JECRC UNIVERSITY
JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
(DECEMBER 2018)

1
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Mini Project work titled “Configuration and analysis of

bicycle frames using ANSYS software” that is being submitted by Shubham Agrawal

(15BMEN009) is in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of

Technology, is a record of bonafide work done under our guidance. The contents of this project

work, in full or in parts, have neither been taken from any other source nor have been submitted

to any other Institute or University for award of any degree or diploma.

Prof. M.M.S. Sodhi Mr. Anand Prakash

(HoD, ME) (Project Supervisor)

i
 APPROVAL

This Project Report on “Configuration and analysis of bicycle frames using

ANSYS software” by Shubham Agrawal (15BMEN009) is approved for the award of the
degree of Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering.

Examiner (s)

Project supervisor (s)

HOD

Date:
Place: Jaipur

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 CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION

I declare that this written submission represents my ideas in my own words and where other
ideas or words have been included I have adequately cited and referenced the original sources. I
also declare that I have adhered to all principles of academic honesty and integrity and have not
mispresented or fabricated or falsified any idea/data/fact/source in my submission. I understand
that my violation of the above will be cause of disciplinary action by the institute and can also
evoke penal action from the sources which have thus not been properly cited or from whom proper
permission has not been taken when needed.

SHUBHAM AGRAWAL
Registration No – 15BMEN009

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This mini report is submitted for partial fulfilment for the award of the degree of Bachelors

of Technology in Mechanical Engineering at JECRC University. This has been an interesting

challenge and a good learning experience for me. Throughout this mini project period, people have

contributed directly or by providing support and guidance in the completion of the research.

I am most grateful to my supervisor Mr. Anand Prakash Asst. Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Department for his support and guidance. I have been very fortunate to work under their

supervision, and I thank them sincerely for the advice, encouragement and patience. I am

extremely thankful to Prof. M.M.S. Sodhi, Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering and

whole faculty and staff members, for their help and advice during the course of this work.

Last but not least, I am indebted to my parents, without whose support and encouragement I could

not have achieved so much.

SHUBHAM AGRAWAL
Registration No – 15BMEN009

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 ABSTRACT

Bicycles continue to be the principal mode of transport for the low and middle
income families. This is because the bicycle is both environment and people
friendly. India is the largest producer of bicycles next only to China. It produces
around 1.26 crore bicycles every year. Considering the rising fuels cost and
pollution, the bikes are considered ideal. These can be maintained at low costs.
Since their inception bicycles have provided society with a source of
transportation, exercise, recreation and sport. New bicycle frames are generally
motivated by weight and/or stiffness considerations and often incorporate the use
of high performance engineering materials. Indeed, competitive bicycling has
promoted the use of various advanced structural materials including non-ferrous
alloys (e.g. primarily aluminum and titanium) and reinforced polymers (e.g. carbon
and graphite reinforced epoxies). Both the frame design and the material contribute
to rider’s energy consumption. Energy is expended for propulsion and elastic
deformation of the frame. Therefore a minimization of frame’s total mass and
deflection are essential.

Frame is very important part of bicycle as all the important accessories are
mounted on the frame. The frame need to be very strong, stiff and light in weight,
which is obtained by combining different materials and optimizing its shapes. The
strength of frame construction is correct design of a frame because it is the most
important part that ensures safe riding. This report deals with the various design of
bicycle frame. The modeling of bicycle frame is done in Computer Aided Design
software CATIA and analysis of frame is done using the analysis software Ansys.
This analysis is done by considering conditions like static start up, steady state
paddling, vertical impact, horizontal impact, rear wheel braking etc. This report
gives us the stress, strain, factor of safety of particular bicycle frame.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page No.
CERTIFICATE ii

APPROVAL Iii

CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v

ABSTRACT vi

LIST OF TABLES ix

LIST OF FIGURES x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xii

CHAPTER - I: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 5

1.2 Project Management 7

1.2.1 Plant layout 8

1.2.2 Maintenance Schedule 9

CHAPTER - II: LITERATURE/ THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 15

2.1 Historical Development 16

CHAPTER - III: EXPERIMENTAL METHODS/ MODELING/ANALYSIS 18

3.1 19

CHAPTER - IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 22

4.1 24

CHAPTER - V: CONCLUSION 30

6
5.1 31

REFERENCES

7
 LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Table Title Page No.

Table 1.1 Indian Railway Train 1

Table1.2 Mechanical workshop, Secunderabad. 2

Table 2.1 Schematic layout of air brake system 5

Table 2.3 Cut Off Angle Cock 8

viii
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Figure Title Page No.

Figure 1.1 Indian Railway Train 1

Figure 1.2 Mechanical workshop, Secunderabad. 2

Figure 2.1 Schematic layout of air brake system 5

Figure 2.3 Cut Off Angle Cock 8

Figure 2.4 Brake Cylinder 8

Figure 2.5 Dirt Collector 9

Figure 2.6 Sectional view of dirt collector 10

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 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LHB Link Hofmann Busch

ICF Integral Coach Factory

WSPS Wheel Slide Protection System

HE Heat Exchanger

PFHE Plate Fin Heat exchanger

TFHE Tube Fin Heat Exchanger

FTMHE Finned Tube Matrix Heat Exchanger

CFTMHE Circular Finned Tube Matrix Heat Exchanger

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 CHAPTER – 1

INTRODUCTION

The innovation in the design of bicycle frame is still going on, the
reason behind this is that the manufacturers and construction designers
have innovative ideas related to minimize aerodynamic drag, to
improve comfort, minimizing the mass of the frame, maximizing lateral
stiffness in the load transfer from the hands and feet to the drive,
maximizing the strength capabilities of the frame to allow for a higher
load capacity or better load distribution, and adjusting the vertical
compliance of the frame to tune the softness of the ride [1,2] that are
needed to provide rider comfort and safety ride. Most modern bicycle
frames have the simple form. This shape emerged in about 1895
following several decades of vigorous development and evolution and it
remained as basically unchanged since that time [3]. The trial and error
method is used at that time but this method does not provide the
relevant result and the intuition made is not necessarily all time correct
so there is need of software that provide a way to get direct and
appropriate result. This ultimately saves the cost and time of
manufacturer. The solution is provided by Finite Element Analysis
(FEA). FEA is a computational technique used to obtain approximate
solutions of boundary value problems in engineering. Simply, a
boundary value problem is a mathematical problem in which one or
more dependent variables must satisfy a differential equation
everywhere within a known domain of independent variables and
satisfy specific conditions on the boundary of the domain. Boundary
value problems are also sometimes called field problems. The field is
the domain of interest and most often represents a physical structure.
The field variables are the dependent variables of interest governed by
the differential equation. The boundary conditions are the specified
values of the field variables on the boundaries of the field. Depending
on the type of physical problem being analyzed, the field variables may
include physical displacement, temperature, heat flux, and fluid velocity
to name only a few [4].

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 LITERATURE REVIEW

As far back as 1986, Peterson and Londry (1986) used FEA to fine
tube the design of the Trek 2000 aluminium frame using two other
designs (steel, aluminum) as performance benchmarks for mass,
strength and stiffness characteristics. The model used beam elements
to represent the tubular frame structure (excluding forks) with a
variety of loading conditions to all frames to calculate their response
characteristics [5]. In 1999,D. Arola et.al. explained the method used
for an experimental evaluation of unique Prototype Bicycle motocross
(BMX) frame [6]. In 2009, Thomas Jin-Chee Liu, Huang-Chieh Wu
in their discussed the fiber direction and stacking sequence design for
the bicycle frame of the carbon/epoxy composite laminates [7].
Alexandre Callens, André Bignonnet the methodology used for
validation of bicycle frames and the fatigue strength prediction is
excellent when compared to the standard tests [8]. The work presented
by Derek Covill, et.al. outlined a FE model using beam elements to
represent a standard road bicycle frame. The model simulates two
standard loading conditions to quantify the vertical compliance and
lateral stiffness characteristics of 82 existing bicycle frames [9].
Recently in 2014, M. V. Pazare deals with the stress analysis of
bicycle frame by using Finite Element Method. The analysis of frame
is carried out in ANSYS software, and the F.E.A. results are compared
with theoretical results. And it is found that there is good agreement
between analytical and F.EA results [3].
II. METHODOLOGY
The methodology used in this paper consists of modeling the bicycle
frame in CATIA software and analyze the frame using the analysis
software Ansys. In this paper the sample analysis of frame of Falcon
Avon is presented here. CATIA is software which is used for creation
and modifications of the objects. In CATIA, the design and modeling
feature is available. Design means the process of creating a new object
or modifying the existing one. Drafting means the representation or
idea of the object. Modeling means creation 2D to 3D model. By using
CATIA software, create the model of the bicycle frame. The modeling
of various frames in CATIA is as follows. 3.1. Modeling of bicycle
frame

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Figure 3.1: Modeling of Falcon Avon bicycle frame Figure
3.2: Modeling of Sunami bicycle frame

Figure 3.3: Modeling of Foster bicycle frame Figure 3.4:

Modeling of Miss India Hero bicycle frame
3.2. Analysis requirement
After modeling the analysis of frame is done in Ansys Software, for
that purpose After preparing the model in CATIA it is improved to
ANSYS, the file is imported from CATIA by file>import>IGES. To
carry out the analysis various conditions are consider like, Static start
up, Steady state pedaling, Vertical impact, Horizontal impact, Rear
wheel braking. The input data for the analysis of bicycle frame
Material IS2039 is as follows:
Young’s modulus: 2.e+005 MPa
Poisson’s ratio = 0.31
Density = 7.75e-006 kg/m3
Tensile Yield Strength =320 MPa
Tensile Ultimate Strength= 400 MPa
Physics type = Structural
Analysis type= Static structural, Solver target= Ansys mechanical

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Force applied in various conditions:

(A)
(B)

(C)
(D)

(E)
Figure 3.5 (A)Static start up (B) Steady state pedaling (C)Vertical
impact (D)Horizontal impact
(E)Rear wheel braking
III. RESULT ANALYSIS
The analysis of bicycle frame named Falcon (Avon) size
50.5cm (20") is done using

following condition as follows:

4.1. Static start up

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 (A)
(B)

(C)
(D)
Fig. 4.1(A) Deformation (B) Vin Mises Stresses (C)
Strain (D) Factor of safety

4.2. Steady state pedaling

(A)

(B)

(C)
(D)
Figure 4.2 (A) Deformation (B) Von Mises stress (C)
Strain (D) Factor of safety
4.3 Vertical Impact
15
 (A)
(B)

(C)
(D)
Figure 4.3 (A) Deformation (B) Von Mises stresses (C)
Strain (D) Factor of safety
4.4. Horizontal impact

. (A)
(B)

(C)
(D)
Figure 4.4 (A) Deformation (B) Von Mises

stress (C) Strain (D) Factor of safety 4.5. Rear wheel

braking

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 (A)
(B)

(C)
(D)
Figure 4.5 (A) Deformation (B) Von Mises stress (C) Strain (D)
Factor of safety
Results in tabular form:
TABLE I
Conditions Total Equivalent Equivalent
Deformati Elastic (von-Mises)
on Strain Stress
Static start 1.9931e- 8.1359e- 16.272 MPa
up 002 mm 005
mm/mm
Steady 1.554e- 1.0228e- 20.456 MPa
state 002 mm 004
pedaling mm/mm
Vertical 4.1937e- 2.7646e- 55.292 MPa
impact 002 mm 004
mm/mm
Horizontal 0.10109 3.1421e- 62.842 MPa
impact mm 004
mm/mm
Rear 1.6719 2.7345e- 54.689 MPa
wheel mm 004
braking mm/mm

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 CONCLUSION

From the results of FEA, it is apparent that the stresses induced in the
bicycle frame of Falcon Avon is least and the factor of safety is also
well above the limit. Also the Von Mises stresses are less than
ultimate strength for the material. Thus the design of bicycle frame is
sturdy. The use of Ansys software makes the process of calculation
fast and several iterations are permissible to arrive at the best possible
results. The results are relevant provided the assumptions and
boundary conditions are perfect.

The inner and outer diameter of top tube, seat tube and down tube is 33 mm and
29 mm with a thickness of 2mm. The inner and outer diameter of seat stays and
chain stays are 23 mm and 21 mm with a thickness of 1mm. The lengths of the
tubes are taken in accordance to the rider’s height. The lengths are close to
industry standard. Modeling of the designed bike frame is done in NX
Unigraphics 7.5 software. The bike frame is designed in 2 different material
alloys so as to analyze and compare the frame material according to one’s need.
For these 2 frames, 5 different load cases are defined in order to make out the
stress and deformation in each frame. Normal stress analysis along x-axis is also
performed in ANSYS software with the same loading cases. The stresses
obtained from both the theoretical (analytical) and ANSYS are compared and a
difference of 0% to 42.6% is seen in the results but the average difference is
around 5% which can validate the ANSYS results as there is difference in
meshing standard in both the analysis.

Equivalent (von-Mises) stress analysis for all material alloys for all load cases is
performed in ANSYS to make a comparative study. Results of all cases reveal
that the maximum stress in the member of the bike frames is less than the yield
strength in tension for the material selected. A comparative study is also made
for the total deformation in the members of alloys for all load cases. Aluminium
alloys are light weight but are easily deformed.

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 References
[1] Andrew L. Hastert, Benjamin F. Barger, and Justin T. Wood,“Finite
Element Analysis of a Sandwich Composite Bicycle
Frame”.www.labmilwaukee.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/08/bikef
ea.pdf
[2] Mr. M. V. Pazare “Stress Analysis of Bicycle Frame”, International
Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST), ISSN:
0975-5462 Vol. 6 No.6 Jun 2014, Pages 287-294.
[3] David. V. Hutton, “Fundamental of Finite Element Analysis”
.published by McGraw hill publication, International edition ISBN-
0-07-112231-1, copyright 2004.
[4] Leisha A. Peterson and Kelly J. Londry, “Finite-Element Structural
Analysis: A New Tool for Bicycle Frame Design The Strain Energy

19
 Design Method”, Bike Tech Bicycling Magazine's Newsletter for
the Technical Enthusiast, 1986 Vol 5, No. 2.
[5] D. Arola, P. G. Rainhall, M .G. Jenkins, S.C. Iverson, An
Experimental analysis of hybrid Bicycle frame”, May- June 1999,
Experimental techniques. Type CEA06-125UR 120, Measurement
Group, Releigh NC Pages 21-24.
[6] Thomas Jin-Chee Liu, Huang-Chieh Wu, “Fiber direction and
stacking sequence design for bicycle frame made of carbon/epoxy
composite laminate”, 23 October2009,
www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes, Pages 19711980.
[7] Alexandre Callens, André Bignonnet, “Fatigue design of welded
bicycle frames using a multi axial Criterion”, 2012, 9th Conference
of the International Sports Engineering Association. Pages 640-645.
[8] Derek Covill, Steven Begg, Eddy Elton, Mark Milne, Richard
Morris, Tim Katz,” Parametric finite element analysis of bicycle
frame geometries”, The 2014 conference of the International Sports
Engineering Association. Pages 441-446.

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