Failure Strength Optimization of a Cartridge Assembly Using Numerical and Experimental Analysis

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">Leak Before Break (LBB) is now widely applied in pressure vessels and other pressurized components to detect the failure by unstable crack initiation and propagation. This concept is also applied in pneumatic brake system components to validate the structural rigidity of the devices. Pneumatic brake system component plays a vital role in the commercial vehicle platform. It consists of four major systems such as charging systems, actuating systems, control systems and actuators. Charging System includes compressor, reservoir, air dryer, and system protection valves. Compressor acts as an energy source for pneumatic air brake systems, reservoir is used to store the compressed air generated by the compressor, and system protection valves are used to divide and distribute the air flow to the brake system. Air dryers are used to absorb moisture, oil particles and tiny foreign contaminants, regulate the system pressure, and blow off the excess pressure from the system. It contains a desiccant cartridge, filter, unloader valves, orifice, silencer, and tire inflator. The desiccant cartridge is made of sheet metal container with the crimp ring and attached with the base plate at the bottom to avoid the leakage and for better structural rigidity. During pressure pulsation test, one of the major test criteria in automotive standards, crimp ring - base plate was failed before leak. In this study, failure simulation is carried out using non-linear material property to address the cartridge structural failure considering the variation in the yield strength of the base plate. Also, to achieve leak before breakage, failure strength of the cartridge system is optimized using finite element analysis. The test validation is executed, and correlation study is performed to find the results accuracy of the numerical methods.</div></div>