Fatigue Analysis of a Fork Spring on a Suzuki Motorcyle

Situation: Evaluate the structural integrity and fatigue life of a fork spring on a suzuki motorcycle.

Task: Use concepts from mechanics of materials and verify the results with numerical simulation software.

Action: Applied fatigue models, FEA analysis, and rebuilt parts in Solidworks.

Result: Presented the results in front of academic and industry professional, receiving the top grade in the class on the project.

Shows the dimensions of the fork spring analyzed. ×

Shows the free body diagram of an axially loaded spring and the resulting stress diagram of the spring wire. Note: the worst case stress occurs on the inside of the coil spring. ×

Shows Mohr's circle for the location of the worst case stress location on the inside of the coil. ×

Shows the alternating stress diagram under at the worst case loading conditions. ×

Shows the S-N curve derived for the spring and the worst case loading condition. ×

Shows the alternate form of the fatigue diagram with the current operating point. The plot suggests the life expectancy of the spring under the current operating conditions to be 560,000 cycles. The margin of safety suggested by the plot is -0.17. ×

Shows the definition of the safety factor applied to the Modified Goodman Model for springs. The margin of safety suggested by the plot is -0.17. ×

Shows the stress distribution on the spring and the locations of the max and min stresses using SOLIDWORKS software. Note: the resulting max stress is almost identical to the theoretical calculations. ×