POLITECNICO DI MILANO

DIPARTIMENTO DI INGEGNERIA MECCANICA

3D GEOMETRIC MODELLING FOR SIMULATION Prof. Roberto Vigan

FULL SUSPENSION MOUNTAIN BIKE FRAME Leonardo Sanches Lima

2011

INDEX 1 Mountain biking 1.1 Downhill mountain biking 1.2 - Historic-technical evolution 2 Frame 2.1- Efficiency 2.1.1 Pedal kickback 2.1.2 Brake Independence 2.1.3 Stiffness 2.2 Features 2.2.1 Tapered Head Tube 2.2.2 Pull-Shock (damper) 2.2.3 Floating disc brakes 3 The model 4 Analysis 5 Optimization 6 - Conclusion

1 MOUNTAIN BIKING Introduction The mountain bicycle, refered to as MTB or also ATB (All-Terrain bicycle) has a very particular history, once its appearance was not the result of an engineering effort or the materialization of a pre-defined concept. Instead, this type of bicycle was born from a series of adaptations to conventional cruiser bicycles, by that time called clunkers (Fig.1) for the high level of noise they produced when ridden off-road. They were comfort bicycles that had fenders, racks, lights and chain covers removed, and received fat tires to improve traction on dirt, and later, had gears adapted from speed bicycles, so they could also be ridden uphill. By that time, there were no specific off-road cycling components being manufactured, so that many things had to be adapted, and others had to be solved with patience and creativity. One interesting fact, for example, is that after long downhill rides, the hub bearings needed to receive lubrication, once the grease all went away due to the high temperatures and efforts received, once those components had been designed for extremely more moderate use. The increasing appearance of these modified bicycles and their growing popularity called the attention of the industry, which quickly attended the desire of their costumers by releasing the first models, which triggered a wide trend in the sport, with trails and circuits being created everywhere, mostly in California, USA. Nowadays, mountain bicycles represent a big share of the cycling industry market and the quantity of different manufacturers and concepts is endless. Besides, the sport itself evolved and divided in many different disciplines, being the main ones: XC Cross country Physical endurance and technical trail riding DH Downhill Gravity assisted speed riding AM All Mountain Combination of the two previous ones Enduro Endurance gravity riding

The mountain bicycle, when compared to other bicycles, becomes very interesting for those who look for one single bicycle that can do a bit of everything. Being robust and flexible, the exchange of a few key parts can change considerably the behaviour and intended application of the vehicle. Such changes may come by means of changing the tires, adding racks for transporting loads, fenders for the city use and a variety of others that may diversify the use of one single chassis. In the present days, the popularity of mountain bike riding is justified very much for the magnificent combination of factors that the sport puts together. Being in close contact with nature, developing a physical activity and contemplating high speeds and accelerations securely contributed to the expansion of the sport.

Fig. 1 A tipical clunker adapted to off-road downhill riding

1.1 Downhill Mountain Biking The gravity assisted discipline of mountain bike riding is directly related to the origin of the mountain bike itself, being it the first manifestation of off-road cycling in history. Downhill racing has gone through a series of substantial changes along with the introduction of new technologies to the bicycles. The very first races were developed with multiple riders on track at the same time, and evaluated not only riding skills, but also the racing positioning and strategy. Along time, this practice has been left behind due to the high risk level of having interference among riders and the races adopted a time trials format, using time acquisition systems, so that racers could develop the most of their lines on track, without influence of other competidors. In the beginning, the racing tracks were different too. There was a tendency for wide open dirt roads, which obviously meant very high speeds and associated risks. Along downhill racing history, the tracks followed a tendency of getting more and more technical, once hydraulic brakes and the fullsuspended frames allowed them to ride places nobody could think of riding before, at lower speeds, but still with a lot of challenge associated to it. A whole new generation started and single-track riding defines very well the outlines of what the discipline became nowadays. Along with this shift in track design, came all the evolutionary technological changes regarding the bicycles themselves. The rides became longer in time, and also more physically demanding, due to the roughness of terrain. Steps and high-speed jumps are commonly found in current tracks, representing a deeper challenge in terms of suspension setting, which now must accomplish a wider range of action and guarantee efficiency in different working conditions. Downhill racing is regognized by the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) but differently from Cross Country racing, nas not yet been accepted as an olympic discipline.

1.2 Historic-technical evolution Along its history, the mountain bike was able to benefit from a series of technologies coming from the racing, aerospatial and motorsports industries. The idealization of the mountain bike itself was marked by changes in the bikes that were present in those days, by means of adaptations made to bicycles previously designed for city use. The very first changes can be represented by the bigger tires or even the adaptation of motorcycle brakes to the bicycles, at the same time when gears have been attached to it, in the 60's. Much later, in the early 80's, the first mass production mountain bike came out (Specialized Stumpjumper Fig. 2), bringing the already revolutionary cantilever brakes, which offered higher braking power with an extremely light set-up, once it's structure consists basically of steel cables. By this time, a common mountain bike would feature 18 gears, composed by 3 chainrings in the front and 6 sprockets in the back. Shifting was done by means of revolute levers in continuous variation, still before indexation came out.

Fig. 2 Specialized Stumpjumper the first mass produced MTB, 1981 In the early 90's, Magura (Germany) released the first hydraulic brakes in mountain bike history, which by acting on the rims in the same way as traditional brakes, instead of using discs, raised a stiffness deficiency on the frames that did not support the high efforts produced by the hydraulic circuit and needed the addition of horseshoe brake boosters (Fig. 3) to the brake bosses attached to the frame. That ended up being used not only for the hydraulic brakes, once it improved braking efficiency by increasing frame stiffness.

Fig. 3 Horseshoe type brake booster.

Gear-shifting came to a big step forward with indexation, by introducing definite incremental gaps on gear cable sliding, which permited also the addition of rapid fire shifters, using buttons instead of levers, which made gear-shifting more precise and less time/attention consuming. By that time, front suspension was already a reality, featuring maximum travel of 100mm, but still using low level suspension technology such as springs and elastomers. Hydraulic suspention was still in its early days and faced serious reliability limitations. In the mid 90's the first full-suspension models came out and the first hydraulic disc brakes were released. This period represented what we can consider the most consistent evolution in the sport and the cost of racing competitively restricted the access to it for a reduced number of people. Shortly after the year 2000 we could realize the first signs of kinetic and dynamic analysis of suspension geometry, with a whole variety of frame designs and the first models featuring floating disc brakes were released, showing a convenient preocupation for isolating braking forces from influencing the work of the suspension system. The recent years have seen the introduction of carbon fiber in many different components of the bicycles, representing anothe big step forward in terms of technology. Brakes have come to advances in terms of heat exchange, by means of the use of radiators attached to the brake pads and composite internally ventilated discs. Suspension geometry has come to a high level in terms of design, aiming for three basic goals: compliance with a wide range of efforts, brake influence independence and pedaling efficiency, so that no power is lost while pedaling. Specialized bikes together with Fox suspension introduced the use of inertial sensors on the rear axis (Fig. 4), piloting the valves of the damper, so that suspension is activated only when needed and behaving rigidly on flat ground.

Fig. 4 Inertial sensing unit used to pilot damper valving (Specialized) Remote controls have been added to the handlebar, both for locking front and/or rear suspension, but also for telescopic seatpost adjustment, allowing geometric variation to be done onthe-fly in order to permit the rider to flow along different sections without interrupting the ride for such adjustments. Considerable advances in terms of materials have been seen in the last years. In a segment where aluminium has had no competition for all of its history, we see the breakthrough of carbon fiber being applied to downhill frames, even after a considerable amount of rumour that it would never happen. Carbon fiber application has shown it supremacy as a very stiff and structurally efficient material, and has been very much present in the world cup podium lately.

2 FRAME The frame of a mountain bike represents its chassis, providing support to the front assembly (handlebar + fork + front wheel) and connects the seat, pedals, rear suspension and rear wheel. Its geometry defines key aspects of the final behaviour of the vehicle, such as the head angle, wheelbase, bottom bracket clearance from the ground, and size. After full-suspended frames were created, downhill riding changed completely and since then, a large variety of designs have been experimented. From the simplest single-pivots, floating pivots to frames using 2 spring-damper units. 2.1 Efficiency The efficiency of a downhill mountain bike frame can be evaluated based on the aspects that will define how stable and precise the bicycle will be, how the energy will be transmitted from the rider to the ground (pedalling efficiency) and how the suspension will tackle the input from the terrain, in order to minimize energy losses. 2.1.1 - Pedalling efficiency During the pedalling movement, inertial forces are generated by the moving masses involved in the cyclic rotation of pedal cranks and the legs of the rider. These forces end up influencing the vehicle suspension and generate an undesired, energy-consuming effect. In order to minimize this effect, several efforts can be done, such as a proper setting of the spring-damper unit, positioning of the pivots at the time of designing the mechanism, blocking the movement of the suspension or also the use of inertial units piloting the damper valves, as mentioned before. 2.1.2 Brake Independence A full-suspended bicycle frame, mostly those using a single-pivot set-up, will have a strong influence of braking forces on the functioning of the suspension, once the brake caliper is attached to the rear moving non-suspended part of it, so the generated brake torques will be transfered to the mechanism, and finally to the spring-damper unit. Such influence is due to the rotation of the whole wheel together with the suspension rear part, around the pivoting point, being blocked by the contact point of the tyre with the ground, which should vary with such rotation, generating undesired torque. These effects limit the range of functioning of the suspension at a very strategic moment of the ride, which is when brakes are being activated, and the need for suspension compliance is at its maximum, still more critical when braking at the entrance of a turn, or landing at rough or limited areas. This effect can be reduced during the design process, acting on the positoning of the pivots, in a manner that these efforts can be counter-balanced, transmitting braking torques in a way that the influence on the working of the suspension can be minimized. This can be achieved in a manner that the brake induced resultant force will pass through the instant rotation center of the swingarm. Another solution, still more effective, is the use of a floating brake caliper, using a mechanism that counter-acts this geometrical situation, which will be explained later in this work. 2.1.3 Stiffness

Stiffness plays a major role on the efficiency of a mountain bike frame, working together with the stiffness of the front fork in order to provide handling precision and pedaling efficiency. It will define very much of how the bike feels, mainly in turns, and by riding different bikes the performance of such parameter becomes evident from one to another. Needless to say that a trade-off in terms of stiffness is weight, so that endlesss efforts have been made along the evolution of mountain bike frames in order to find the maximum point in terms of the combination of both quantities. Stiffness can be classified as it follows, represented in the figures of a motorcycle frame: Longitudinal Stiffness: strictly related to braking conditions and determined mostly by the robustness of the region around the steering headset. Along the years we have seen a growth on the standard dimension of the head tube primary diametes, from 1, to 1 1/8 and now 1 . The use of tapered head tubes will be discussed later on. Longitudinal stiffness will be greatly influenced also by the stiffness of the front fork itself. Such parameter is evaluated by means of fixating the bottom bracket or/and real axle and applying longitudinal load to the headtube.

Fig. 5 Standard evaluation of longitudinal stiffness Lateral Stiffness: will affect handling precision in turns and define much of the feeling mentioned before. Defined by the overall mass distribuition on the frame and evaluated by means of fixating bottom bracket and seatpost and properly applying lateral loads to the rear axle and headtube.

Fig. 6 Standard evaluation of lateral stiffness

Torsional Stiffness: parameter that will influence most pedalling efficiency and handling precision. It is important to point out here, the assymetry of loads on the frame due to the

tension on the chain contributing to torsion when pedaling on the right-hand side, and counter-balancing torsional effects when pedaling on the left-hand side. The evaluation of torsional stiffness is made by means of fixating the head tube and applying longitudinal torque to the rear axle dropouts.

Fig. 7 Standard evaluation of torsional stiffness 2.2 Features 2.2.1 Tapered headtube As mentioned before, the standards concerning the dimension of the headtubes have followed an increasingly growth over the years. By always keeping in mind the struggle for structural efficiency, some designers have opted for a tapered (conical) headtube, claiming that the efforts on the lower part of the tube itself are more significant, so that the need for an increase on the dimensions of the whole tube were not necessary. Besides the gain in terms of weight, we should remember that the welding area on the lower part will also increase, but what seems to make the most sense in such a design parameter, is the availability of compatible stems on the market, once passing to a new (larger) dimension would require also an adaptation on the dimension of the fork steerer tube and stem. That makes for a step forward in component compatibility, which on the bicycle market can be considered critical, so that any advances in terms of it will represent a significant advantage to the final customer.

Fig. 8 Tapered headtube (Norco bicycles, Canada)

2.2.2- Pull-Shock

The use of the spring-damper unit as being pulled instead of pushed is very much present inthe majority of motorcycle frames, which counts for a long-term expertise in terms of engineering design, and gives credit to it. Those who opt for such decision state that, for example, we cannot think of a parachute being pushed, a trailer being pushed by a car, and use also the examples of bridges that use cables always being pulled instead of pushed, so that such configurationg tends to stability, selfcentering and equalization of lateral forces. On a mountain bike application, all of that is welcome, and leads to positively increasing stiffness along the travel of rear suspension, and reduction of nonsuspended mass. Also, when considering torsional loads, the damper shaft undergoing deflection will result in the reduction of itls lifespam leading to oil leakage.

Fig. 9 - Pull-Shock application (Ancilloti bicycles, Italy) 2.2.3 Floating brake caliper The use of floating brake calipers intends to isolate braking loads from the work of the suspension. Althougyh recent advances in suspension design claims to achieve such goal geometrically, by means of a proper positioning of the pivots, by generating trajectories in which the brake-induced force goes through the instant center of rotation of the rear assembly, the floating brake calipers are a relatively simple solution that effectively works, and its result can be clearly noticed when riding. The drawback is the added weight and in some cases, such as the one that will be presented for the model in reference here, is a reduction on the clearance from the gound, once there are additional parts on the side of the rear wheel that become prone to shocking the irregularities of the ground, such as rocks and roots.

Fig. 10 Example of a floating brake caliper (Merida bicycles, Germany)

3 The 3D Model

To fulfill the requirements of this work, a 3D mountain bike frame has been modeled, using Solidworks, on the basis of a ChumbaWumba Zulu (2004) existing frame. By choosing an early model, the aim was to apply the new features to an older existing geometry, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of such changes. In this work, variable tube-wall thickness was not used, although it is also very present nowadays. The innovative tube shapes made possible by the present use of hydroforming has not been considered either, being most tube circular. Such frame was used for the UCI Downhill World Cup and now has been substituted by the new F5 model, featuring a whole new front triangle, but still the same swingarm and the pull-shock principle. The frame features 8 inches of rear travel and has been modeled as follows: front triangle swingarm 2 rocker links (boomerangs) 2 connecting rods (bengalas) 10 ball bearings 7 spacers 6 bolts rear axle

Fig. 11 Chumba Wumba Zulu 3D model. 4 Analysis

The most common type of failure on downhill mountain bike frames is os the rear swingarm. Such tendency can be understood as a combination of three major factors: the swingarm is the first frame component to receive the loads coming from the rear axle it is mostly subjected to torsional loads due to the vehicle behavior in turns assymetrical loads due to the disc brake caliper being attached to the swingarm Being so, this part has been chosen as the object of the analysis using the 3d model. The simulation has been run on Solidworks Simulation Xpress, which can be considered very simple and limited, so that approximations must be made, such as the fixation of moving parts, once the analysis is static-linear and fixture is mandatory. Analysis has been performed by fixating both the spring-damper eyelets and the attachment to the front triangle and applying load to the rear axle, to represent the efforts coming from the rear wheel. Simulation has been run initially with two different meshes, to highlight the bennefits of mesh refinement.

(a) Fig. 12 Coarse (a) and fine(b) meshes, generated automatically

(b)

The difference on the refinement of the results can be clearly seen in Fig. 13. and 14:

Fig. 13 Von Misses stresses on the swingarm, according to simulation made with coarse mesh (fewer-larger elements)

Fig. 14 - Von Misses stresses on the swingarm, using fine mesh. Despite the considerable increase in time consumption in mesh generation, we can clearly notice the refinement of the results. It is important to notice that the stress level remained the same, but the visualization becomes finer according to the reduction on the size of the finite elements.

Table 1 - Data concerning simulation using coarse, unrefined mesh.

Table 2 Data concerning simulation using fine, refined mesh. It is important to mention here, that differently than one might think intuitively, the use of a less refined mesh is not more conservative than that of the fine one, as it should be, if we considered safety on what concerns using the results of simulation for engineering decision making. We must notice that the level of maximum stress is higher (31,45%) when using the finer mesh, as well as the mentioned displacement is more significant (2,2%). Enough to compensate for the extra time required for the mesh generation (+28s).

5 - Optimization During the analysis process, we concluded that 2 critical parts of the swingarm deserved special attention and design refinement, in order to avoid stress concentration. The two mentioned areas are the vertix of the structure where the spring-damper unit shall be mounted, and the vertix of the eyelets where the swingarm is attached to the front triangle, picuted in Figs. 15 and 16 below.

Fig. 15 Critical stress concentration area on the upper part of the swingarm.

Fig.16 Critical stress concentration on the lower part of the swingarm.

The addopted solutions for such problems are pictured below, consisting of primarily adding a curve to the transition between the spring-damper eyelet and the top part of the swingarm. It was not enough though, so that another action was taken, in the sense of increasing the width of the plate to which the eylets are attached.

Fig. 17 Original and optimized spring-damper eyelets.

Fig. 18 Reduced stress concentration due to the addition of a transition curve and increase in the width of the corresponding plate (to be compared to Fig. 15). Such increase on the plate width cannot be visualized on the figure, and this action has been taken after several unsuccessful efforts to reduce stress concentration. After increasing the radius three times and re-running the simulation, the radius arrived close to the next vertix, so that it could not be increased anymore, which makes us think that probably increasing the plate width as a first measure, could have been a better optimization strategy.

On the lower part of the swingarm, we came to high stress concentration in a zone of straightedges, which are commonly known for creating critical stress areas. The addopted solution in this case was the incremental enlargement of the radius belonging to the transition of the lower surface of the swingarm, which has this peculiar shape in order to fit the tube around the bottom bracket on the front triagle of the frame.

Fig. 19 Initial and final configurations of the transition on the lower part of the swingarm. Even with tht drastic increase on the radi, simulations still kept showing critical stress concentration on the area, so that another solution needed to be taken, which was the application of smoother radi on the straight-edges comprising the affected region:

Fig. 20 Initial and final configurations on the lower critical area on the lower part of the swingarm, showing the application of radi to the straight-edges.

6 Conclusion At the end of this work, we can clearly notice the importance of reliable modelling, in order to achieve accurate simulations. Also, virtual simulations have shown to be the a powerful tool on what concerns reducing the time and the costs of product development and safety analysis. We must also point out the attention that must be made in order to refine the meshing process to an extent that fulfills the requirements of safety involved in the engineering decision-making process. One important point, highlighted by de development of such work, is that Solidworks (2010) Simulaton Xpress is very limited, in the sense that it offers the option of applying forces ortogonally to surfaces or normally to the three reference planes, in a way that oblique force configurations must be simplified or represented by the use of two forces in different planes. Also it is not possible to apply torques. One other limitation is that one end must always be attached to the ground, which does not represent certain situations, as if we wanted, for example, to simulate the loads acting on the front triangle. On the other side, a good expertise has been developed in the sense of finding the most appropriate set-up, in the sense of approximating the real force distribution to the conditions offered by the simulation environment. Below, we can see two images of the final swingarm represented in blue color, showing that for the selected loads and geometry, in no point the Factor of Safety surpassed the value 1.

Fig. 21 FOS (Factor of Safety) represented in blue along the critica stress concentration areas of the swingarm, showing that in terms of safety the analysis and optimization show satisfactory results.

Bibliography: The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame Crested Butte, CO Bicycle: The History, Herlihy, David V, Yale Uniersity Press, 2004 Barnetts manual, analysis and procedures for bicycle mechanics Barnett, John, Boulder, CO, Velo Press, 2003 www.chumbaracing.com