HEAVY TRUCK CHASSIS CLAMPING LOAD EVALUATION OF THE BOLTED JOINTS UNDER EXTERNAL LOADS

Bolted joints are frequently used in the automotive industry. Loosening of the joints under vibration has been an ongoing problem which is associated with many structural failure incidents. Finite element model of heavy truck chassis were used for the analysis. We performed static analysis by applying assembly loads to twenty priorly identified critical joints. Then, time varying external loads (impact loads) were applied to truck chassis fifth wheel. Abaqus explicit is used as the solver. We examined critical parameters for the clamping load variation under highly dynamic external loads.