Search Results

The development of computational procedures has allowed increasing the range of virtual analysis of various engineering problems. The design of industrial products must meet requirements of durability, strength, reliability, security, and criteria of low cost and weight. These requirements are among the many reasons that enable technological advances; and such advances are needed to make possible to increasingly use software's capacity of simulating real operating conditions of components. This work has as main objective to achieve fatigue analysis of a connecting rod of an automotive internal combustion engine by using software based on finite element method. For this were used curves of loads and boundary conditions, obtained from experimental analysis of the component, so it may be possible a correlation between experimental and computational results.

The improvement of fatigue life in parts subjected to cyclic stresses by application of mechanical surface treatment processes is already well known, both in the industry and in the academy. Speaking of automotive springs, the shot peening process becomes an essential step in manufacturing these parts. In the case of leaf springs, however, a systematic investigation of the effect of shot peening on fatigue life is still required. The aim of this work is to improve the knowledge of shot peening on leaf springs for vehicles through fatigue tests on a series of samples that were subject to different peening processes. A second shot-peening after a first peening under stress (stress peening) led to a higher durability comparing to the conventional process, opening an opportunity of vehicle weight reduction.