Parametric model for structural stability computation of chassis in tipper trailers.

Abstract: When a tipper trailer empties the load it carries, a torque occurs if the trailer stands on uneven ground. To withstand this torque, and prevent the trailer to roll over, the chassis‟ torsional stiffness must be high enough. The stiffness is highly dependent of the geometry of the chassis structure. When analysing different geometries the pre-processing of the finite element (FE)-model is time consuming. The first part in this master thesis was to assess what element type to use for this type of load case. It was necessary to simplify the FE-model as much as possible for the second part of the thesis. A comparison of modelling the chassis with beam elements instead of shell elements was performed. It was concluded that resultant beam elements should be used when analysing the torsional stiffness of the chassis. In the second part of this master thesis a program was developed to automate the FE-modelling of the chassis, this to be able to compare several chassis structures in a short amount of time. The program generates a FE-model of the desired chassis structure depending on parameters given from the user. The program produces a text file, containing information about the FE-model, which can be read and viewed in a LS-DYNA compatible pre-processor.