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Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICMPC_2018

Stress Analysis Of A Bicycle Frame

Devaiah B.B.a, Rajesh Purohitb, R. S. Ranac and Vishal Parasharc

a
PG Student, Mechanical Engineering Department, MANIT, Bhopal, India.
b
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, MANIT, Bhopal, India.
c
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, MANIT, Bhopal, India.

Abstract

Stress analysis is a very important field in product optimisation and in conjunction with Finite element methods, solving complex
structures is relatively quicker. In this study stress analysis of a Bicycle frame is carried out using ANSYS Workbench 14.5 using
various boundary conditions and compared it with theoretical results. All the stresses were found well below the yield stress of
the material used and hence are in the safer zone.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of Materials Processing and characterization.

Keywords:Stress Analysis of Bicycle; FEA; Ansys.

1. Introduction

Bicycle is a simple structure subjected to various types of loads at different points in the frame. Over the years,
the shape of the bicycle hasn’t changed much with much importance given to weight reduction and design
optimisation.With conforming to the stiffness and strength of the bicycle while reducing the weight is a challenging
proposition in product optimisation. Currently Bicycles have high strength and high stiffness and with induction of
composites it is quite challenging to build a frame that absorbs all the loads without any significant deformation.
Earlier, the task of performing analysis was tedious but with the advent of FEM the laborious tasks are eliminated
and lead time in bringing a product to the market is reduced.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rpurohit73@gmail.com

2214-7853 © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of Materials Processing and characterization.
 Devaiah B.B et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926 18921

FEM (Finite Element Methods or Analysis) is a numerical method to obtain approximate values to boundary
value problems involving differential equations. It further divides the domain into smaller regions where stiffness
matrix of the finite element is found. On assembling, the global or assemblage of the stiffness matrices is to satisfy
load-displacement equation (F=k*d). Commercial software’s inverse the K matrix to obtain displacements and then
stresses and strains with the relations between them.
It is vital to interpret the results of FEA and intuition is also required. It is therefore necessary that a model is
experimentally tested or verified with previous researches to validate the procedure being adopted is error free.
In the present analysis Steel (E=205GPa, υ=0.29) was chosen as the material for preliminary analysis. The frame
is subjected to various boundary conditions [1]. The paper presents an attempt to deduce close conformance between
the theoretical results and FEA results.
The bicycle frame was modelled in CATIA V5.
Ansys Workbench 14.5 was used to perform the FE analysis. A static structural analysis was performed. A mesh
optimisation was not done but it is recommended to be done before any analysis is performed.

2. Literature Review

Extensive study was done on previous literatures related to a bicycle frame. Peterson et al [1] were the pioneers
in implementing the Finite element method in structural analysis- the strain energy method.
In their study, a new frame was modelled and compared with two existing models. Static start up, horizontal
impact, vertical impact, front and rear wheel braking and steady state pedalling boundary conditions were
implemented. Furthermore, the strain energy method is used to provide insights to trade-offs between stiffness
characteristics, internal load distributions, and weight reduction. The true intent of a stiff frame is to transfer energy
efficiently from the cyclist to the rear wheel. This implies that the designer should minimize the amount of energy
that goes into straining the frame. Therefore the strain energy varies inversely as the stiffness of the frame. It has
been found that this distribution of energy within the frame is a useful indicator of its overall stiffness profile. Apart
from satisfying the fatigue and yield conditions the strain energy absorbed in each tube of the frame is tabulated. In
the study it was observed that the start-up (hill climbing) load generated the highest level of energy storage. In the
vertical impact case the strain energy absorbed is very small when compared to other cases suggesting that for the
comfort of the rider having a greater vertical flexibility would do. Also the seat stays absorb the least amount of
energy compared to other tubes suggesting that they are the primary source of material shedding.
Covill et al [2], outlines the use of finite element model under various load cases. Steel was taken as the material.
The interesting aspect of this paper was the use of connecting elements or rigid bodies to simulate real world
dynamics. These rigid bodies are force transmitting members and are fixed to front fork and rear axle. The seat post
and the steering tube were also simulated as rigid links.
A similar study was also performed by Pazare et al [3] , where the frame was considered as a truss to find the
stresses theoretically in each member and then to compare it with FE results using commercial package Ansys
APDL. The tubes were assumed as line i.e. beams elements and subjected to loads as mentioned in previous
literatures as shown in below Fig 1 and Fig 2.

3. Methods

The approach involves in validating two existing research papers [1] and [2]. The former approach involves just
the frame where the loads are applied directly to the frame members. The loads being taken from the references [4]
and [5].

The different tubes are named and their respective diameters and length are also given. A uniform thickness of
1mm is given to all the tubes and radius of 4mm is maintained at all the junction of the tubes. Whereas, in the latter
approach the loads are applied at the rigid links to simulate real world conditions. There are three boundary
conditions that are considered in this effort. These loading conditions are also considered in [1].
18922 Devaiah B.B et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926

Seat stays:-L=494mm ,OD=19mm Top tube:-L=567mm ,OD=32mm

Head tube:-L=125mm ,OD=38mm

Seat tube:-L=540mm ,OD=33mm

Chain stays:-L=417mm Down tube:-L=620mm ,OD=33mm

,OD=19mm
`
Fig. 1 Bicycle model with dimensions

Rigid links

Fig. 2 Bicycle model with rigid links

 Devaiah B.B et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926 18923

(i)Static Start up- the rider is on the bicycle applying a load of 700N about to start pedalling but at rest.
Aerodynamic, rolling and gyroscopic forces are assumed to be negligible. The bicycle is in vertical equilibrium.

i ii

Fig. 3 Bicycle subjected to load conditions (i) and (ii)

(ii)Steady State pedalling- the cyclist is seated on the bicycle and applying a force of 200N due to leg dynamics.
The load is assumed to be concentrated at the bearing as shown in above Fig 3 (i -ii).
(iii)Vertical Impact- vertical impact loads are represented by multiplying the cyclist’s weight by some amount of G
factor. In this case a factor of 2G is taken taking the load to 1400N which is the necessary case when an object falls
from an infinitesimal height onto a rigid surface as shown in below Fig 4 and Fig 5.

Fig. 4 Bicycle subjected to condition

(iv)The case that is presented now is from [2]. Here the loads are simulated for the load bumps occurring at the front
wheel. A resultant load of 2700N is transmitted at the rigid links which are then connected to the axle and then to
the frame via the fork.
18924 Devaiah B.B et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926

Fig. 5 Bicycle subjected to condition

4. Results and Discussions

The frame is divided into 169770 triangular elements. The stress results for the different loading conditions are
shown below for (i) (ii) and (iii) cases.

i ii

Fig. 6 Stress results for loading cases (i) and (ii)

 Devaiah B.B et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926 18925

iii iv

Fig. 6 Stress results for loading cases (iii) and (iv)

The graphs show the average stresses induced in different tubes in MPa. It can be seen that in all the cases the seat
stays are comparatively stresses more followed by the top tube. The seat tube is the least stressed in all the cases. It
can be seen that the maximum stresses are located at the junction of the tubes and stress concentration occurs. Also,
all the stresses are well below the yield stress of the material used as shown in above Fig 6 (i-iv).

(i) (ii)
18926 Devaiah B.B et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 18920–18926

Fig. 7 Average stresses in each of the members for loading cases (i),(ii),(iii)

In the case where the rigid links were used to simulate real world scenario’s the fork seems to be getting stressed
more and frame seems to be unaffected. Therefore, a static structural analysis wasn’t conclusive. A further
exhaustive study must be done to debug this problem as shown in above Fig 7 (i-iii).

5. Conclusions

In the present the finite element analysis of a Bicycle frame was carried out using ANSYS FEM software using
various boundary conditions and the results were compared with theoretical results found in the literature. All the
stresses were found well below the yield stress of the material and the results were found to be in good agreement
with the theoretical results.
The current scope of study can be extended to the use of composites which are extensively used nowadays with
weight reduction and stiffness being the key issue. Composites such as carbon fibre can be used to simulate the
analysis.

References

[1] Peterson L, Londry K., Finite-element structural analysis: A new tool for bicycle design: The strain energy method. Bike Tech: Bicycling
Magazine’s Newsletter for the Technical Enthusiast, Summer 1986, 5(2).

[2] Derek Covil et al., An assessment of bicycle frame behaviour under various load conditions using numerical simulations. International
Sports Engineering Association (ISEA), 147, 2016, 665-670.

[3] Pazare M, Khamankar S., Stress analysis of bicycle frame, International Journal of Engineering Science and Technology (IJEST), 6(6),
2014, 287-294.

[4] Hoes M, Brankhorst R A., Measurement of forces exerted on pedal and crank during work on a bicycle ergo meter at different loads.
Int.Zeit Ange. Physiol. Einschl. Arbeit., 26, 1968, 33-42.

[5] Drouette, J-M Champoux., A novel dynamometric hubset design to measure wheel loads in road cycling. The Engineering of Sport, 8,
Procedia Engineering 2, 2010, 2925-2930.