Fracture Mechanism Analysis and Design Optimization of a Wheelset Lifting Mechanism Based on Experiments and Simulations

Abstract

In this study, material and dynamic stress experiments are combined with finite element (FE) simulations to reveal the fracture mechanism of the wheelset lifting apparatus, and a structural design optimization scheme based on the double-layer Kriging surrogate model is proposed. The fracture mechanism of the wheelset lifting apparatus is first clarified through the material analysis of macro/micro and dynamic stress tests. Static strength and modal analyses are then performed to perfect the mechanism analysis in terms of structural performance. An efficient, robust, fatigue design optimization method based on the double-layer Kriging surrogate model and improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) is finally proposed to improve the original design scheme. For the wheelset lifting mechanism’s fracture, the crack source is found on the transition fillet surface of the lifting lug and lifting ring, where the fracture has the characteristics of two-way, multisource, high-cycle, low-stress fatigue. It is further revealed that the vibration fatigue occurring at the point of maximum stress is the main cause of the fracture. The effectiveness of the proposed design optimization method is validated via comparative analysis.