Durability Analysis of Motorcycle Front Fender through Virtual Simulation, on Road Testing and Laboratory Testing Using NVH Tool 2015-01-2264

In India, demand for motorcycle with good comfort is increasing among the customers thereby the vibration reduction of two wheelers is key parameter for motorcycle manufacturers. In order to overcome the demand in the market, manufacturers are giving more importance to cost of the product by reducing the material. This results in the reduction of the life cycle of the vehicle models and drives the manufacturers to different product design philosophies and design tools, as one would expect. One of the performance factors that continue to challenge designers is that of vehicle vertical acceleration experienced by the motorcycle components. An essential tool in the motorcycle development process is the ability to quantify the durability of the component.

This paper main objective is to increase the life of the motorcycle front fender through virtual simulation, on road testing and laboratory testing using NVH tool. Vibration and strain level on the front fender was measured on torture track. Accelerometers are mounted on the vehicle to extract the dynamic accelerations on the motorcycle at various connections points like front and rear axle, front steering pivot, rear cushion top pivot fender and rider foot rest during the process. On the other hand, a similar condition is simulated by using simulation using MSC.ADAMS. Finally, a qualitative comparison is made between the results of simulations and experiments. Then conversion of track time domain data into NVH data and then performing laboratory testing to find out the life of the component. The results show that both natural frequencies of the transfer path are observed same in the experiments as well as simulations.