Research Article
Finite Element-Based Simulation of Cooling Rate on the Material
Properties of an Automobile Silent Block
Burak
¨
Ozt¨ urk
1
and Fuat Kara
2
1
Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Bilecik Seyh Edebali University, Bilecik, Turkey
2
Mechanical Engineering, D¨ uzce University, D¨ uzce, Turkey
Correspondence should be addressed to Fuat Kara; fuatkara@duzce.edu.tr
Received 10 April 2020; Revised 7 June 2020; Accepted 8 June 2020; Published 30 June 2020
Academic Editor: Aniello Riccio
Copyright © 2020 Burak
¨
Ozt¨ urk and Fuat Kara. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
e aluminum silent block is the part that connects the front suspension mounting and the road wheels. ese products are used
in high-speed cars and are subject to high engineering stresses. Over time, fractures occur in the connection part of these products
due to insufficient strength. ese problems are related to production metallurgy, which led to the concept of this study. During
mass production, these parts are manufactured using the aluminum extrusion method. In this study, a rapid cooling process using
water was applied, with the aim of improving the mechanical properties of the connecting part exposed to high dynamic loads.
Samples were taken from the regions of these products which differed in thickness and width, and microhardness and tensile tests
were performed for each region. e effects of both the extrusion cooling rate and the regional flash cooling on the material
properties were then characterized. As a result of the isothermal transformation, the grain size in the microstructure of the
material had shrunk. According to the findings, in this type of production, an average increase in strength of 25% was observed in
the parts of the material subjected to maximum stress. e stress and safety coefficient values were found using finite element
analysis, and curves were then drawn showing the differences in the safety coefficient values from the different points. As a result of
cooperation between university and industry, the material and mechanical properties of an automobile part were improved in this
study. is research has shown that, in terms of the accuracy of the results, it is very important to consider the variations in
different regions of the product when defining the mechanical properties of any material produced by applying casting, heat
treatment, and plastic forming methods.
1. Introduction
e suspension system is the name given to all the elements
connecting the wheels of a vehicle to its body parts. e main
task of the system is to provide roadholding and vehicle safety.
e automobile silent block is also part of the suspension
system [1, 2]. e silent block part in the suspension system of
a car is shown in Figure 1. When designing a vehicle sus-
pension system, it is necessary to have a good understanding
of the consequences of all its parameters. ere are two
objectives when designing the suspension system. e first is
to provide physical and mental comfort and to minimize
harm to the passengers inside the vehicle, and the second is to
ensure that the road contact force of the vehicle does not
change, i.e., to provide good road control [3]. e mechanical
capability of the vehicle elements should be taken into
consideration when creating this design. e suspension
mountings that connect the wheels to the chassis of the vehicle
must be resistant to various strains [4].
e most loaded part of the suspension of a vehicle has
been discussed. 3D numerical analysis of the silent block was
carried out on the basis of the model by using two types of
rubber bushings with different hardness [2]. e aim of this
work is to achieve experimental data for the improvement of
mathematical models of vehicle silent blocks to develop a
method for their diagnosis [5]. In a study, the dynamic be-
havior of an arm-free suspension for an automobile was
investigated. A mathematical model based on the vector
matrix algebra was used to describe the mechanical system [6].
e results obtained from the numerical experiments revealed
Hindawi
Advances in Materials Science and Engineering
Volume 2020, Article ID 1954947, 8 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/1954947