Articulation Study and Reduction of Load Transfer to Engine and Engine Hanger Attachment Points for 2-Wheeled Scooters 2014-01-2871

Motor scooters are popular in most parts of the world, especially in countries with local manufacturers. Parking, storage, and traffic issues in crowded cities, along with the easy driving position makes them a popular mode of transportation. Motor scooters are the segment of 2 wheelers which is driven by the entire family with ease unlike motorcycles which is a male dominated segment. Due to the importance that the scooters hold in the present time, it has become very important to manufacture stable, light weight yet robust scooters.

For the best product in the market, testing is given a great importance in automotive manufacturing companies. Virtual testing has been the latest development in terms of testing a vehicle during the design stage itself. Multi Body Dynamics approach is used to study - 1) the articulation of various sub-assemblies and 2) the static & dynamic loads generated at various attachment points of the scooter. Integration of sub-assemblies into a final product creates a minimal scope of modification of the location of different components. With this in mind, the maximum load transferring members i.e. the engine and its hanger / toggle link are positioned to get minimum load at their attachment points. This is done keeping in mind the trade off needed between minimum load transfer requirement and vehicle integration.

In this paper, the optimization, of the attachment points of the engine and its hanger, is demonstrated keeping in mind that the toggle link attachment points bear a minimum amount of load. The toggle link locations are optimized to achieve a great isolation from reaction forces under static and dynamic boundary conditions.