Design and Analysis of Front Axle for Two Wheel Drive Tractor

Fatigue failure has become a major concern in the automobile and aircraft industry, heavy machinery etc. Failures by fatigue are especially dangerous because they are unpredictable; giving no prior notification of the imminent failure they occur suddenly. Front axle of tractor is one of the major and very important components that undergo severe load conditions and it fails unexpectedly causes unrecoverable losses. The objective of this study is to analyze the existing design of the front axle of the tractor for service load conditions and redesign to its functional requirements and to increase its life expectations. Finite element simulation is carried out for the existing front axle using ANSYS. The critical location of the front axle has to be identified and redesigned to ensure the safety. The existing geometry of the front axle is modified to the optimum size which suits for functional requirements with increased life and minimum cost. In this analysis, the geometry of the front axle is modified and a new design is proposed. The life expectancy of the front axle was predicted for the dynamic load using ANSYS fatigue design module.