Development of Stiffness Analysis Program for Automotive Wheel Bearing

Automotive wheel bearing is an essential component of the vehicle and transmits engine power into wheels and supports vehicle weight. As comfortable ride has recently been the common interest, the stiffness of bearing which affects the steering performance becomes significant. In this study, the program BSAP was developed to carry out the stiffness analysis by designer easily and quickly. BSAP has three templates; CATIA template, AFC template, and Report template. In CATIA template, 3D analysis model was generated from the CAD model by eliminating useless fillets and holes and assigning heat treatment parts. Material property, boundary conditions and loadings were applied and analysis was performed in AFC template. Finally, analysis results was reported automatically in Report template. Bearing stiffness analysis was performed by using the BSAP. To verify the reliability of BSAP, the analysis results were compared with experiment results. They showed good agreement with the experiment results.