For the past few decades, there has been a rapidprogress in the field ofmaterial science which has resulted in the reduction of cost and weight of materials. This modified systems developed by incorporating various advanced and smarter materialshas led to areduction in number of accidents andtherefore, the safety has increased, which again has been an utmost concern for any industry in modern times. The present work is an attempt to provide the readers with a comparative overview in the context of conventional and advanced materials focusing on a mechanical joint, i.e. the Knuckle joint. A Knuckle joint finds its extensive application for connecting two rods subjected to normal tensile load and requiring flexibility in its angular movements. Here, we are suggesting a modification over theconventionally used material, such as Aluminium alloythat is widely used for manufacturing the Knuckle joints.The results obtained from our study approves that the use of composite material not only decreases the weight of the material but it also improves the life of the component as the composite material shows less deformation in comparison to the conventional one. In the present work, CATIA V5R18 has been used for modellingthe 3D geometry of Knuckle Joint and ANSYS (Workbench 16.2) is been used for finite element analysis of the same with the conventional and composites materials respectively. Composite analysis is based on Rule of mixtures.

1. IDL - International Digital Library Of
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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017
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Numerical Simulation of Knuckle Joint
Using Finite Element Method: A New
Approach Based on Composite
VIVEK SHAW 1
, TANUJ SRIVASTAVA2
,ROHIT GHOSH3
,
DR. RABINDRA NATH BARMAN 4
Department of Mechanical Engineering
1, 3
B.Tech Student, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur; West Bengal, 713209, India
2
M. Tech Student, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur; West Bengal, 713209, India
4
Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur; West Bengal, 713209, India
Abstract:For the past few decades, there has
been a rapidprogress in the field ofmaterial science
which has resulted in the reduction of cost and
weight of materials. This modified systems
developed by incorporating various advanced and
smarter materialshas led to areduction in number of
accidents andtherefore, the safety has increased,
which again has been an utmost concern for any
industry in modern times.
The present work is an attempt to provide
the readers with a comparative overview in the
context of conventional and advanced materials
focusing on a mechanical joint, i.e. the Knuckle
joint. A Knuckle joint finds its extensive
application for connecting two rods subjected to
normal tensile load and requiring flexibility in its
angular movements. Here, we are suggesting a
modification over theconventionally used material,
such as Aluminium alloythat is widely used for
manufacturing the Knuckle joints.The results
obtained from our study approves that the use of
composite material not only decreases the weight
of the material but it also improves the life of the
component as the composite material shows less
deformation in comparison to the conventional one.
In the present work, CATIA V5R18 has been used
for modellingthe 3D geometry of Knuckle Joint
and ANSYS (Workbench 16.2) is been used for
finite element analysis of the same with
the conventional and composites materials
respectively. Composite analysis is based on Rule
of mixtures.
Keywords:Knuckle Joint, CATIA V5R18,
ANSYS 16.2, FEM, Carbon FiberAluminum.
1. INTRODUCTION
Knuckle Joint is a mechanical part which is used to
connect two rods under tensile load when there is a
requirement of asmall amount of flexibility, or
angular moment is necessary. The line of action of
theload is always axial or linear [1]. The axes of
these two rods either coincide or intersect and lie in
one plane. A knuckle joint is unsuitable to connect
two rotating shafts, which transmit torque [2].
Knuckle Joint is named so because it is free to
rotate about the axis of a knuckle pin.A typical
knuckle joint has the following parts namely [3].
1) Fork end
2) Eye end
3) Knuckle pin
4) Collar
5) Taper pin

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Fork end, eye end, and collar are provided with
coaxial holes. Knuckle pin hold the fork end and
the eye end together in a position. The knuckle pin
is held in its position with the help of a collar and a
taper pin. These joint are used for different types of
connections, e.g. tie rods, tension links in thebridge
structure [4]. A Knuckle joint can easily be
disengaged when required. Knuckle Joint is
designed and used in different type of equipment
for transmitting load. Some researchers have
worked on the optimization of steering knuckle
which targets on the reduction of weight as the
objective function without compromising in terms
of strength, frequency, and stiffness. The Knuckle
worked on undergoes varying load under different
condition but it was modeled such that it does not
affect the steering performance of the vehicle. The
work was done in HyperWorks and solved in
RADIOSS solver [5][6]. Purushottam Dumbre et
al.[7] performed their study with the aim to reduce
the weight of knuckle joint and performed finite
element analysis using OptiStruct (Hyper works).
As weight also becomes an important aspect in the
field of racing industry as it affects the transmission
efficiency of the device. Knuckle Joints used for
steering in racing cars are also analyzed and
optimized in accordance with the weight. Nishant
Vibhav Sexena et al. [8] performed the study and
analysis on Knuckle Joint with the replacement of
the actual material. They worked on the
maximisation of safety, making the system simple
and eco-friendly. It was seen that the production of
the Joint become economical but the strength got
reduced to some extent. Another study shows a
model which has been drawn in CATIA [9]
Koszalkaet et al. [10] used FEM for the frame
analysis of a low loader truck. In this study
composite material is applied using rule of mixture.
Similar kind of study using has been done by Rohit
Ghosh et al.[11]. The performed their study on leaf
spring model where carbon fibre steel composite is
applied on 8th
and 9th
laminated plate.
2. ANALYTICAL
CALCULATION
Dimensions of the Knuckle Joint is shown in Table
1.
Table 1: Shows the dimensions of different parts of
Knuckle Joint
Part Dimension
Diameter of rod (d) 36 mm
Diameter of pin (d1) 36 mm
Outer Diameter of eye
(d2)
72 mm
Diameter of Knuckle
pin head and collar (d)
54 mm
Thickness of Single eye
or rod end (t)
45 mm
Thickness of Fork (t1) 27 mm
Thickness of Pin head
(t2)
18 mm
The axial load applied P = 70000 N
We know, the allowable stress for the rod material
[2].
σt = (Ultimate tensile stress/ Factor of safety) =
280/2 = 140 Mpa
We know, the allowable shear stress for the rod
material [2].
τ= (shear strength/ Factor of safety) = (207/2) =
103.5 Mpa
Failure of solid rod in tension [2]
𝑃 =
π
4
∗ 𝑑2
∗ σ𝑡
σt = 68.77 Mpa
Failure of eye end in tension [2]
𝑃 = 𝑑2 − 𝑑1 ∗ 𝑡 ∗ σ𝑡
σt = 43.2 Mpa
Properties of carbon fibre with aluminium is found
by rule of mixing.
Young’s modulus Ec=EmVm+EfVf
Ec= 0.4*69000+0.6*300000=207600 Mpa
Density ρc=ρmVm+ρfVf
ρ c= 0.4 *2700+0.6*1800= 2160 kg/m3
Poisson’s ratio µc=µmVm+µfVf
µc= 0.4*0.334+0.6*0.28= 0.3016

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Longitudinal tensile strength S11=SmVm+SfVm
S11= 0.4* 280+ 0.6* 600= 472 MPa
3. MATERIAL PROPERTIES
In the present study, the materials used for
comparative study are Aluminum alloy and Carbon
Fiber with Aluminum composite with volume
fraction of 60:40 and final properties of composite
are obtained by using rule of mixing. The Material
properties used for finite elemental analysis for
both the material are shown in Table 3 [12].
Table 3. Material Properties
Material
Properties
Aluminum
alloy
Carbon Fiber
with
Aluminum
composite
Density(kg/m3
) 2770 2160
Young’s
Modulus(MPa)
71000 207600
Poisson`s Ratio 0.33 0.3016
Tensile yield
strength (Mpa)
280 472
4. COMPUTATIONAL
MODELING
4.1 GEOMETRY
The design being studied is knuckle joint which is
modelled in CATIA V5R18 as shown in Fig. 1.In
the design, the joints are boltedand the fork end is
joined with the eye end with the help of knuckle
pin as it acts as a bolt. The knuckle pin is secured
between the two eyes by a tapper pin and collar.
Fig. 1.Design of Knuckle Joint in CATIA
4.2 MESHING
Meshing is done so that at each and every cell the
equation are solved.Meshing improves the quality
of the solution along with giving higher accuracy to
the solution. [8]
The modelled geometry isimported
in ANSYS 16.2 Static Structural workbench for
meshing. Meshing is done on Proximity and
Curvature. Details of mesh is shown in Table
2.Table 2: Details about the meshing for Knuckle
joint model.
Min Size 0.0250190 mm
Proximity Min Size 0.0250190 mm
Max. Face size 25.0190 mm
Growth size 1.850
Max. size 50.0390 mm
Nodes 165134
Elements 105538
Fig. 2. Mesh for Knuckle Joint
4.3 BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
Knuckle pin, taper pin and collar is defined as fixed
support. An axial load of 70 kN is applied at the
end of the joint. Figure --- shows the boundary
condition applied.

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Fig. 3. Boundary condition and load of 70 kN.
5. RESULTS&
DISCUSSIONS
5.1 Maximum equivalent (Von-Mises) stress:
From the numerical simulation analysis, the
maximum equivalent stress was found to be 83.56
MPa which is less than the allowable stress
considering factor of safety 2.The ANSYS analysis
indicated the maximum stress experiences at the
interface between the pin, eye-end and the fork end.
The structure therefore has a safety factor of almost
2 for this loading and failure mode. The structure is
therefore satisfactory for carrying the axial load of
70kN. With the introduction of Carbon-fibre
aluminium for the analysis, there is insignificant
change in equivalent stress occurred. Figure 4 (a
and b) shows the distribution of equivalent stress.
Directional
deformatio
n-
ANSYS
software has a unique module which enables to
measure the amount of deformation i.e. change in
length of the joints. It can be seen that maximum
deformation is experienced at the end of the joints.
The above results shows that the maximum
displacement at the end of the joints is around
0.096669 mm in case when aluminium alloy is
used. With the introduction of composite material
there is noteworthy reduction in the value of
maximum directional deformation of 0.025417
mm. The analysis shows that the deformations
experienced by the components are less when
composite material is applied and can be used
safely for the application even for longer time
duration as compared to when aluminium alloy is
used. Figure 5 (a and b) shows the distribution of
directional deformation.
Figure 4(a) Distribution of Equivalent stress for
Aluminium alloy
Figure 4(b) Distribution of Equivalent stress for
Composite application
Figure 5(b) Distribution of Equivalent stress for
Composite application

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Weight reduction-
Apart from the other benefits, the biggest benefit,
however, is mass reduction for using composite
materials. The mass of the system when aluminum
alloy is used was 6.215 kg. When composite
material is used the weight got reduced to 4.8464
kg. So reducing weight can provide a great help
towards the modern automobile industry which are
focusing on weight reduction.
The software based results are summarized as
follows-
Table Comparison for aluminum alloy and
composite applications
Parameter Load
(N)
Alumin
um
Alloy
Com
posit
e
appli
catio
n
%
chang
e
Equivalent
stress
(MPa)
70000 83.56 84.9
02
-1.6%
Directional
Deformati
on (mm)
70000 0.0966
69
0.02
5417
73.7
%
Mass (kg) - 6.215 4.84 22.02
64 %
CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
SCOPE
The FEM analysis is done for the knuckle joint. To
analyse the stress, mesh was developed for the
knuckle joint. Due to application of composite
material there has been a negligible change in stress
value but directional deformation and weight of the
system got reduced by 73.7 % and 22.02%
respectively. Though the cost of production of
Knuckle Joint with the composite material is
relatively high but the result shows significantly
low deformation. So, with the use of composite
material in, the life of the Knuckle jointincreases.
Also, the weight of the Knuckle Joint decreases.
Thus, Knuckle Joint with this composite material
can be used in places which require replacement of
tool in large interval of time. Further study can be
carried out in this regard in order to obtain more
accurate results by performing the above analysis
in the ANSYS Composite domain.
REFERENCES
[1] Gupta, R.S. Khurmi, J.K. (2008). A textbook of
machine design (S.I. units)
[2]V.B. Bhandari, Design of Machine Elements,
McGraw Hill Education, ISBN: 0-07-0681791-1,
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[3]Knuckle Joint – Introduction, Parts and
Applications. Retrieved
fromhttp://mechteacher.com/knuckle-joint/
[4] Knuckle Joint – Introduction, Parts and
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fromhttp://nptel.ac.in/courses/Webcourse-
contents/IIT%20Kharagpur/Machine%20design1/p
df/Module-4_lesson-2.pdf
[5] VirajRajendra Kulkarni, Amey Gangaram
Tambe., “Optimization and Finite Element
Analysis of Steering Knuckle”. Altair Technology
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Fig. 5(a) Distribution of Directional Deformation
for Aluminium alloy

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[6] Kirpal Singh, Automobile Engineering, New
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[12]http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=
2863