Throughout the history of the entire car, from the initial realization of the mobility, to the present comfort and versatility, the pioneers of the car brand to upgrade the vehicle design to a new level according to people’s needs. In terms of component design, discussions including structural design, driving safety, and lightweight materials must also focus on other elements.

Taking the automobile chassis steering knuckle as an example, the reliability of the components in the steering system of the automobile is directly related to driving safety. Moreover, due to the particularity of the position, there are many connecting parts, and the structural design of the knuckle is limited by space. In addition, due to the complicated force situation, the impact load caused by the driving process of the car should also be taken into account in the design of the parts. Therefore, the materials used for the parts must meet the requirements of strength, impact resistance and reliability.

In recent years, the development of automotive CAE technology is nearing maturity, and the automotive structure design including the vehicle CAE not only reduces the research and development cost of the enterprise, but also shortens the product iteration cycle. The steering knuckle is connected to the axle, tie rod and other parts in the steering system, which can simplify the force situation in the finite element analysis. During the driving process, the vertical, longitudinal and lateral loads of the steering knuckle can be considered, and the simulation calculation process can be implemented in the Simright Simulator. The knuckle model shown in the figure below applies a face load in three directions after the introduction of the Simulator and a center constraint on the hole at the fixed point.

After meshing, submit the solution. The displacement cloud and stress cloud are shown below.

It can be seen from the displacement cloud diagram that the maximum deformation of the knuckle occurs at the tie rod joint, and the maximum stress occurs at the middle of the tie rod and the knuckle, and there is also a partial stress concentration at the root position. In the design of the steering knuckle, the stress intensity at the joint of the tie rod should be mainly considered to avoid the breakage due to excessive turning torque.

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