Fatigue Fract Eng Mat Struct - 2022 - Wöllner - Fatigue Behavior of Agricultural Rims Under Rotating Bending Load

Received: 14 January 2022 Revised: 25 March 2022 Accepted: 30 March 2022
DOI: 10.1111/ffe.13720
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Fatigue behavior of agricultural rims under rotating

bending load
Uli Wöllner | Robert Szlosarek | Matthias Kröger
Institute for Machine Elements, Design

and Manufacturing, TU Bergakademie
Abstract
Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany Agricultural rims are highly loaded components which affect the functionality
and safety of tractors significantly. For this reason, it is essential to prevent a
Correspondence
Robert Szlosarek, Institute for Machine damage of the rims. However, fatigue-initiated cracks along the bolt circle
Elements, Design and Manufacturing, TU arise at any time during application. Until now, the determining load for the
Bergakademie Freiberg, 09599 Freiberg,
crack initiation is unclear. The paper investigates this fatigue problem by
Germany.
Email: robert.szlosarek@imkf.tu-freiberg.de experimental, analytical, and numerical methods. Therefore, a test rig using
hydraulic actuators is designed to load the rim by rotating bending in combi-
nation with a lateral force. The loads are deduced by an analytical model of
the tractor under different driving situations like cornering. The finite element
model shows the critical locations by performing a fatigue analysis of the driv-
ing situation. The experimental and numerical results verify the assumption
that the rotating bending in combination with a lateral force leads to the
fatigue cracks also found by tractors in reality.
KEYWORDS
agricultural rims, fatigue, finite element analysis, non-proportional loading, rotating
bending, test rig
1 | INTRODUCTION explanations for the damage scenarios shown in Figure 1.

The figure shows tractor rims with a fatigue crack run-
Plowing, cutting, sowing, and pulling trolleys are just a ning along the bolt circle of the hub, which is also a
few of the tasks of tractors used in an agricultural com- known damage scenario of truck wheels.1 Similar dam-
pany. In order to perform these tasks in a minimum of age scenarios are noticed at tractor rims. In case of moni-
time and with maximum efficiency, tractors became toring the damage too late, a catastrophic failure of the
larger in size, mass, and power. Novel tractors possess rim can be the result. Imagining this scenario in the field
more than 400 kW. Due to their specific gears, it is possi- of public road traffic, the consequences can be fatal.
ble to use this power almost from standstill to maximum Therefore, a prevention of this failure scenario is
velocity. Thus, the driving torque on the wheels can be important.
very high in case of full power and low velocity. Another Usually, rims of tractors consist of the rim base and
challenge comes from the increasing size and mass. the disk and are manufactured in one piece.2–4 The con-
Wheels with sizes ranging from 4200 to 4600 and a large tire nection to the wheel can be done in different ways. The
width at the rear axle leads to high bending moments act- standard DIN 743615–7 distinguishes between bolt, cen-
ing on the rims. These two aspects are possible ter, and mixed centering. Accordingly, the bolt circles,
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited.
© 2022 The Authors. Fatigue & Fracture of Engineering Materials & Structures published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 2022;45:2143–2158. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ffe 2143

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2144 WÖLLNER ET AL.
F I G U R E 1 Observed failure modes of tractor rims; (A) fatigue crack in the area of the bolt connection of a tractor rim; (B) fractured bolt
circle of a tractor rim; (C) crack starting from a bore on a tractor rim; (D) crack starting from an imprint in the highly stressed area of
the rim [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
the structural design of the wheel rim in the region of the lever arm bolted to the rim. At the end of the lever arm
bolt connection, and the wheel nuts differ. The European either an imbalance mass rotates or two hydraulic cylin-
wheel manufacturers (EUWA) standards8–12 include ders are coupled, which introduce the test forces with a
specifications for the design of commercial vehicle rims. phase shift of 90 .
Further, the requirements for fatigue tests are presented. So far, only the ZWARP test bench enables a realistic
Notes on how to handle the tires can be found in the representation of all wheel loads to the rim. However,
European Tire and Rim Technical Organization (ETRTO) the disadvantage of this test rig is the space requirement,
recommendations13 for all vehicle categories. since the drum must always have a larger diameter than
Various test rig setups exist for lifetime testing of rims the wheel to be tested. In addition, it is mandatory to test
and wheels. One example is the bi-axial wheel testing the rim with an assembled tire and not stand-alone. Over
device (ZWARP) developed by the Fraunhofer Institute the running time of a fatigue test, several tire changes are
for Structural Durability and System Reliability in Darm- necessary, since the tire is exposed to heavy wear.
stadt, Germany.14 Working with the principle of a drum Another disadvantage is the high safety requirements
dynamometer at the ZWARP the entire wheel rolls inside due to the fast-rotating large masses. The literature
a driven, rotating steel drum while the test loads are initi- review shows that fatigue tested of such large compo-
ated at the tire. The test requirements for agricultural nents are costly and time consuming due to testing and
wheels8 include various test rigs for rim fatigue tests. To tooling time. Hence, a numerical model is useful to
check the fatigue caused by radial forces, a drum test rig reduce the number of needed tests.
is described in the standard, in which the wheel rolls on The finite element fatigue analysis of rims of heavy
the outside of the rotating drum. Lateral forces cannot be weight working machines is presented by Vijayan et al.15
introduced into the wheel. The aim, however, is the They used four different methods (von Mises approach,
review of the fatigue caused by cornering. For this pur- Sines model,16 damage mechanics, and critical plane
pose, the EUWA standard12 describes three types of test approach) to determine the critical locations in terms of
bench setups. In two of these test rig concepts the rim is lifetime. All methods found the same position. Topaç
clamped while the test load rotates. This is realized by a et al.17 present fatigue analysis of heavy vehicle steel
WÖLLNER ET AL. 2145
F I G U R E 2 Calculation model for forces and moments occurring to tractor wheels; (A) side view of the tractor; (B) rear view of the
tractor; (C) top view of the tractor; (D) section view of the right rear wheel [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
wheels. They found a good correlation between the numer- compute the stress situation and the fatigue life by using
ical and experimental results using a stress-life approach the critical plane approach. Finally, the results of the
and the influencing factors for surface roughness, stress experiments and the numerical analysis are compared to
concentration, and size effect. The finite element fatigue each other. Additionally, the results are compared to the
and crack analysis of automobile rims is presented in mul- real world failure scenario of a fatigue crack running
tiple references.18–20 They used mostly the stress-life along the bolt circle as presented in Figure 1.
approach to model the fatigue behavior. These articles
include no comparison to experimental data. Hence, there
is no validation of the numerical results. 2 | METHODS
Based on this state of the art the existing damage sce-
nario will be analyzed. For this reason, driving situations Following, the three used methods will be described: The
with high lateral loads are assumed as cause of damage. loads are deduced from an analytical model of the tractor.
For this purpose, cornering rides as well as driving across Afterwards, these loads are used in experiments and a
slopes is of interest. The objective of the paper is to numerical model to observe the crack initiation.
review this hypothesis by experiments and numerical
analysis. On the basis of an analytical load analysis, rims
are fatigue tested in a new-developed test rig to reproduce 2.1 | Analytical load analysis
the observed load scenario experimentally. Furthermore,
a finite element model was created to compute the To create an analytical model, the following driving situ-
stresses in the rim. The numerical model was used to ations are assumed:
• Driving situation 1: Cornering up to a maximum possi- Due to the uneven weight distribution between front and
ble lateral acceleration. rear axles at many tractors, the rear axle loads are typi-
• Driving situation 2: Acceleration when driving straight cally larger than front axle loads. The total contact force
ahead up to a maximum possible driving torque. at the rear axle
• Driving situation 3: Driving across slopes up to a maxi-
mum possible slope. F N,R ¼ F N,1R þ F N,2R ð6Þ
• Driving situation 4: Combination of cornering and
acceleration. is the sum of the single wheel forces F N,1R and F N,2R . The
contact force F N,F at the front wheels can be obtained in
Figure 2 depicts the calculation model for driving situa- a similar way to Equation 6 with the forces F N,1F and
tion 4, which contains all external loads that occur on the F N,2F .
P
wheels of a tractor in this driving scenario. The balance of moment M ¼ 0 at the rear view of
The mass m of the tractor is concentrated in the cen- Figure 2 leads to the normal force of the right sided
ter of gravity with the height hCOG and leads to a vertical wheels
weight force
1 hCOG
F N,2 ¼ F G þ FC ð7Þ
F G ¼ m g, ð1Þ 2 sR
to an inertia force with the track width sR . The force F N,1 can be obtained in
a similar way to Equation 7. The total contact force of the
FI ¼ m a ð2Þ wheels located on the right side of the vehicle
during acceleration and to a centrifugal force F N,2 ¼ F N,2F þ F N,2R ð8Þ
m 2 is calculated as the sum of the single contact forces F N,2F

F C ¼ m r ω2 ¼ v ð3Þ
r and F N,2R . F N,1 can be calculated by the sum of the forces
F N,1F and F N,1R similar to Equation 8. The simplification
with a velocity v and a cornering radius r. All four wheels of the same load fraction between the right front and rear
transmit these forces to the track. This results in lateral wheel as in Equations 4 and 5 is used for a pure
forces F L , wheel contact normal forces F N , and traction cornering ride without accelerations in longitudinal
forces F T at each wheel contact point. Depending on the direction; hence, F I ¼ 0. For this hypothesis the normal
driving situation, these forces differ significantly at the force at the right rear wheel results in
individual wheels. The forces F I and F C act in the center
of gravity at height hCOG . An acceleration leads to a lF
F N,2R ¼ F N,2 , ð9Þ
moment unloading the front wheels and additionally rS
loading the rear wheels. Cornering unloads the inner
wheels and additionally loads the outer wheels. In case of which leads to
driving across slopes the downhill force components of

the weight load are resulting to an additional loading of lF 1 hCOG
F N,2R ¼ FG þ FC : ð10Þ
the downhill wheels. rS 2 sR
P
The moment balances M ¼ 0 using the wheelbase
r S , and the offsets lF and lR from the center of gravity lead F N,1R is calculated in an equal way. The centrifugal force
to the loads at the front wheels appearing during cornering rides results in a lateral force
for every wheel of the vehicle. The total lateral force F L
lR hCOG of both wheels at the rear axle is
F N,F ¼ FG FI ð4Þ
rS rS
F L,R ¼ F L,1R þ F L,2R : ð11Þ
and at the rear wheels
P
Setting up the moment balance M ¼ 0 around the vir-
lF hCOG tual common point of contact of the front wheels leads to
F N,R ¼ FG þ F I: ð5Þ
rS rS the proportion of the two rear wheels
lF are limiting the lateral forces of the left and right rear
F L,R ¼ FC: ð12Þ wheel. μ represents the static friction coefficient. For the
rS
above considerations, two limit cases have to be
considered:
Within the model, it is assumed that the two rear
wheels transmit the lateral force F L,R in equal parts. This • Limit case 1:The weight shifting can only take place
is a slight simplification of the model in the way that until the complete relieve of the inner wheel. From
local differences in stiffness of the rear axis are neglected. this point, the tractor starts to tilt sideways. Accord-
It is claimed that the forces are equal which leads to ingly, this leads to a limit 0 ≤ F N,2R ≤ F N,R for
Equations 6 and 10.
1 1 lF • Limit case 2:Exceeding the static friction limit, the
F L,1R ¼ F L,2R ¼ F L,R ¼ FC, ð13Þ
2 2 rS tractor begins to slip. Thus, for Equation 13, it follows
F R,2R ≤ F L,2R ≤ F R,2R .
where F L,1R and F L,2R are the lateral forces of the left
respectively the right wheel. The maximum transmissible Using Equations 10–(15), curves of F N and F L for the left
friction forces and right rear wheels can be plotted as a function of the
velocity and the curve radius, see Figure 3. Therefore, a
F R,1R ¼ μ F N,1R ð14Þ total mass of mtot ¼ 16, 000 kg for the tractor is assumed
and the ratios lR =r S ¼ 0:45 respectively lF =r S ¼ 0:55 were
and used. These values are related to a Fendt Vario 930 tractor
as a representative machine.21 In the top subfigures of
F R,2R ¼ μ F N,2R ð15Þ Figure 3 the cornering radius was set to r ¼ 10 m. For
F I G U R E 3 Cornering left, curves of frictional, lateral, and normal force as a function of velocity (top) at r = 10 m and cornering radius
(bottom) at v = 5 m/s; (A) force versus velocity for the right wheel; (B) force versus velocity for the left wheel; (C) force versus cornering
radius for the right wheel; (D) force versus cornering radius for the left wheel [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
F I G U R E 4 Curves for the

total bending moment;
(A) bending moment at the
wheel rim as a function of
velocity with r = 10 m;
(B) bending moment at the
wheel rim as a function of
cornering radius with v = 5 m/s
[Colour figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
μ ¼ 1:0, the curves of the maximal transferable friction resulting from the lateral force are balanced. Generally,
forces F R,1R ¼ μF N,1R and F R,2R ¼ μF N,1R in Figure 3 corre- the total moment increases in situations where the
spond to those of the normal contact forces F N,1R and moment resulting from the lateral force is dominant. This
F N,2R . The smaller the coefficient of friction, the smaller is the case under high velocities and small curve radii.
are the maximum transferable forces F R,1R and F R,2R as
well as the maximum possible velocities and minimum
curve radii during cornering. That means the maximum 2.2 | Material and test specimen
transferable friction force, which depends on the normal
contact force of the wheel, limits the lateral force. In order to determine material data for the simulation
Exceeding the maximum transmissible frictional force of model and to verify the manufacturer information, sev-
the left wheel results in a compensation by the right eral tensile tests were performed. Therefore, test speci-
wheel until it reaches the frictional limit as well. Thus, mens were machined out of a tested rim. Using a Zwick
the consequence is a lateral slip of the wheels (limiting 1476, testing machine tensile tests according standard
case 2). A more complex description considering the slip DIN EN ISO 6892-123 were done with a speed of 1 mm/
rate dependent friction is presented by Schiehlen and min. The diameter of the specimen was 5 mm with a
Popp.22 For the considered fatigue problem in this paper gauge length of 25 mm. The curves in Figure 5 depict the
this is not necessary. typical graph for a low-carbon unalloyed steel. The ten-
Furthermore, to the load analysis of the wheels, the sile strength of Rm ¼ 480…520 N=mm2 corresponds to the
loads acting at the rim will now be of interest. Usually, expectations for the steel S355 (standard DIN EN
the position of the connection between the rim and hub 10025-2,24 material number 1.0045), the yield strength
is out of the center line. This distance is named offset with Re ¼ 390…425 N=mm2 is above the minimal nominal
depth eET , see Figure 2D. For the bolt connection flange, value of Re ¼ 355 N=mm2 .
the contact force of the wheel F N,2R results in a bending The hardness test of the material showed values
moment between 163 HV 10 and 180 HV 10. Using the re-
evaluation table of the standard EN ISO 18265,25 a tensile
M x,ET ¼ eET F N,2R ð16Þ strength of Rm ¼ 510…575 N=mm2 can be determined,
which is slightly above the values of tensile specimens.
and an equal radial reaction force F rz . The lateral force The test specimen is an agricultural rim with a diameter
F L,2R acting during a cornering ride in conjunction with of 4200 and an offset depth of eET ¼ 165 mm, see
the wheel diameter dW,R results in a total bending Figure 6. Considering a tire dimension of 530/70 R42 a
moment wheel diameter of dW ,R ≈ 1810 mm is obtained. The con-
nection to the hub is realized by eight bolts of size M22
dW,R on a bolt circle (BC) diameter of dBC ¼ 275 mm.
M x,tot,2R ¼ M x,ET þ M x,L ¼ eET F N,2R þ F L,2R : ð17Þ
2
Figure 4 depicts that the design of the rim can have a 2.3 | Experimental setup
considerable influence on the resulting load situation.
For some combinations of velocity and curve radius the The test rig concept makes it possible to examine the
resulting bending moment is zero. In this case the fatigue behavior of whole rims of agricultural vehicles
moment resulting from the normal force and the moment with sizes from 2200 to 4600 . In contrast to test rigs
F I G U R E 5 Test specimen
and stress–strain curves;
(A) tensile specimen obtained
from the material of the rim;
(B) engineering stress
vs. engineering strain of three
specimen [Colour figure can be
viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.
com]
F I G U R E 6 Geometry and dimensions in

millimeters of the tested rim; dimensions in
millimeters
presented in literature, it applies all loads relevant for the of 560 Nm of the wheel nuts corresponds to the specifica-
simulation of a cornering ride while the rim is not rotat- tions of the rim manufacturer.
ing. Figure 7 shows the test rig design. Twelve clamps ② Hydraulic cylinders ④ apply the loads F H1 and F H2 in
distributed circumferentially on the rim ring flange fix such a way that the reaction forces and reaction moments
the rim ⑥ to the fixation plate ①. The outside faces of the at the hub-rim interface are similar to those of the calcu-
rim including the valve bore are in opposite to the lation model in Section 2.1. The two cylinders ④ are
clamping face of the fixation plate. On the inside flange arranged with an angle of 90 at the force application
face of the rim the bending lever module is applied, see point of the bending lever module, which has the dis-
Figure 7 top. This is composed of a hub plate ⑦ whose tance lA from the contact surface of the rim. To realize
dimensions are defined according to DIN 74361-3,8 an the rotating bending moment M x,tot as a result of a rotat-
adapter plate ⑧ and a lever arm ⑨, which is designed as a ing lateral force, these become
welded assembly and made out of standard components.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
This configuration is exclusively for hub-centered rims,
F H,tot ¼ ½F H1 cos ð2πft Þ2 þ ½F H2 sin ð2πft Þ2 ð18Þ
as most of the tractors in the upper performance class use
this type of rim centering. The hub plate ⑦ and rim ⑥ are
connected by bolted-in threaded bolts and wheel nuts with a phase shift of 90 between sine and cosine, as
M22 1.5 ⑩ with pressure disks according to DIN shown in Figure 8. The lateral force and the bending
74361-3.8 A circular opening in the fixation plate, which moment are linked with each other over the length of the
is concentric to the mounting position of the rim, ensures lever arm lA due to M x,tot ¼ F H,tot lA . Accordingly, the
the accessibility to the wheel nuts. The tightening torque adjustment of the load situation is set via the correct
F I G U R E 7 Design of the
rim test rig; ① fixation plate, ②
clamps, ③ hydraulic cylinder for
lateral force, ④ hydraulic
cylinders for bending, ⑤
fixations, ⑥ rim test specimen, ⑦
hub plate, ⑧ adapter plate, ⑨
lever arm, and ⑩ bolts with
wheel nuts [Colour figure can be
com]
F I G U R E 8 Forces of the hydraulic

cylinders to represent a rotating bending
moment; (A) relative force of the cylinders as a
function of the phase angle; (B) resulting
rotation of the lever arm at 90 arrangement
with four extreme positions [Colour figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
combination of cylinder force and length of the lever arm 2.3.1 | Load assumptions
in the available ranges of the forces and useful
dimensions. The test rig configuration corresponds to a left cornering
In axial direction another cylinder ③ acts on the ride of the right rear wheel. Therefore, a load
application module with the force F H3 and represents the corresponding to a mass mg ¼ 16:000 kg and a driving
effect of the lateral force F L . Assuming a constant speed of v ¼ 28 kmh ≈ 7, 8 s on a curve radius of r ¼ 10 m is
m
cornering speed and radius, the reaction force at the hub assumed. The graph in Figure 3B shows for this setup a
acts static. Ball joints mounted on the foot side and on normal force F N,2R ≈ 70 kN and a lateral force
the piston rod of all cylinders prevent an influencing of F L,2R ≈ 40 kN. Considering the relationship of Equation 17
the cylinders of each other. this results in a total moment M x,tot ≈ 25 kN m.
The flexible positioning of the cylinders on the test field Since the normal force and the bending moment are
enables the investigation of rims with different sizes and coupled to each other due to the design of the test rig, an
makes it possible to consider different offset depths eET . exact representation of the normal force F N,2R is not
possible. In this context, this error is accepted by assum- between the hub plate and the rim. The finite element
ing that the bending moment leads to much higher dam- model reflects the load situation on the road and not in
aging stresses than the normal force. By setting the the test rig. Hence, the hub is fixed and the load is
length of the lever arm to lA ¼ 1 m, according to equation applied to the rim via a rigid body to create a similar load
situation as it can be assumed during driving. The fixed
M x,tot elements are indicated by the small triangles in Figure 9.
F H,tot ¼ ¼ 25 kN ð19Þ
lA All in all, the model consists of five million elements.
The interesting zone around the hub is modeled by hexa-
the bending moment M x,tot can be fully applied. Cylinder hedron elements with an element size of about 1 mm.
③ initiates the lateral force F L,2R to the rim. Figure 9B shows the force application. A normal force
F N,2R and a lateral force F L,2R are applied on the refer-
ence node of the rigid body. For the purpose of simulat-
2.4 | Numerical model ing a rotation of the rim, the force application point
changes in steps of 45 . Finally, all eight subsequent steps
Using the results of the load analysis it is also possible to represent one rotation of the rim, whereas each step is
investigate the loading of the material by a numerical based on the simulation result of the previous step in this
model. Therefore, the finite element solver Optistruct non-linear analysis.
2017 was used. Figure 9 depicts a scheme of the fixation The finite element model was built with the intention
and load application of the finite element model. The to analyze the stress situation and fatigue damage in one
model consists of the rim, the hub plate, the pressure material point during one rotation. The fatigue damage
disks of the nuts and the bolts. The bolts are modeled as was observed by a strain based analysis due to the
one-dimensional beam elements as it is shown in a sub- expected low number of cycles. Therefore, the local
figure of Figure 9. They are able to transmit tension and strains are analyzed by their elastic and plastic compo-
compression forces and thus a preload. On the one side nent. This is implemented in the used commercial soft-
each bolt is connected to the pressure disks via a rigid ware by the model of Jiang and Sehitogl.26 With the
body and on the other side to the hub plate via another elastic and plastic strain the found relation of Coffin,
rigid body. Hence, there are surface to surface contacts Morrow,27 and Manson between the strain amplitude εa
modeled between the pressure disks and the rim and and the load cycles to fracture N B is used by the equation
F I G U R E 9 Finite element simulation model of the rim; (A) front view of the model; (B) section view of the simulation model [Colour
figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
T A B L E 1 Parameters of the fatigue simulation of the finite lateral force is acting, which induces a bending moment.
element model31 Hence, the driving situations are more or less equal in
Parameter
the way how the forces are acting.
Fatigue strength coefficient σ 0f (N=mm2 ) 758.02

Fatigue ductility coefficient ε0f (—) 0.523 3.1 | Experimental results
Fatigue strength exponent b (—) 0.087
Fatigue ductility exponent c (—) 0.5682 The tested rim (d ¼ 4200 , dBC ¼ 8 275 mm,
Cyclic strain hardening exponent n0 (—) 0.153 eET ¼ 165 mm) is loaded by a rotating bending moment in
Cyclic strength coefficient K 0
(N=mm2 ) 836.4 combination with a lateral force. Figure 10 shows the
resulting crack path in circumferential direction along
the geometry of the outer edge of the wheel hub touching
the pressure disks of the nuts of the bolt connection.
σ 0f
εa ¼ εa,el þ εa,pl ¼ ð2N B Þb þ ϵ0f ð2N B Þc : ð20Þ The crack was observed by visual inspection the first
E time after 45,600 rotations in the area of the wheel nut
2, see Figure 10A. Due to the circumferential bending, the
The parameters used in the simulation model are crack propagates in both directions along a constant dis-
shown in Table 1. The material parameters were deter- tance to the wheel center. The crack growth rate along the
mined by the universal material law plus (UML+).28 The two directions of propagation differs from time to time. Ini-
damage parameter was calculated in the software by tially, it is at a higher speed in the direction of the wheel
using the model of Smith, Watson and Topper (SWT nut 7 than in the direction of the wheel nut 6. After passing
model)29 as the common model for tensile crack growth. wheel nut 7, the crack growth rate of the clockwise crack
A multiaxial analysis with the help of the critical plane slows down, while the crack growth rate of the counter-
approach30 was done to evaluate the principal strain clockwise crack rapidly increases after passing wheel nut
range ε1a and the maximum stress on the principal strain 6. At the end of the test, the crack has reached wheel nut
range plane σ n,max . Equation 21 shows the implemented 4. The crack growth on the other side continued only by a
version of the SWT model in the software. small length in the direction of wheel nut 3. A crack propa-
gation into one of the holes of the bolt circle does not take

σ 0f place. Figure 10C,D depicts the results of a color penetra-
ε1 σ n,max ¼ σ a εa ¼ σ a ð2N B Þb þ ϵ0f ð2N B Þc ð21Þ
E tion test. Figure 10C shows that the bolts deflect the crack.
The crack always runs along the pressure disks of the bolts.
At Figure 10D the view of the hub side is shown. Here, the
This study neglects the influence of the surface roughness crack runs along the outer edge of the hub. The crack path
to the fatigue behavior. observed in the experiment is similar to the damage
The simulation consists of nine load steps. The first observed in reality. It can be expected that an ongoing load-
load step simulates the preloading of the bolts. The bolts ing of the rim in the experiment would lead to an fragment
are preloaded with a force of 91 kN corresponding to a like in Figure 1B. This was not performed to ensure the
tightening moment of 560 Nm in agreement with the safety of the test rig and measurement equipment.
instructions of the rim manufacturer. This means that The observed result points out that it is quite unfavor-
the bolts get tensed by the preload and contact stresses able that the outer diameter of the pressure disks of the
between the pressure disk and the rim and between the nuts and of the hub and are nearly equal. Hence, on both
hub and the rim arise. Thereafter, the pretension force sides of the rim exists a contact stress concentration zone
remains constant. The following eight load steps repre- on the same diameter. This might provoke that the crack
sent the loading due to F N,2R and F L,2R at the eight differ- path is identical to the hub diameter. The pretension of
ent positions. The fatigue analysis uses these eight load the bolts and the resulting contact pressure could be the
steps as one single rotation of the rim and combines the reason that the crack does not run into the boreholes of
single stress states to one fatigue event. the wheel bolts.
3 | R ES U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 3.2 | Numerical results
The experimental as well as the numerical results refer to The results of the finite element simulation provide valu-
driving situation 1 respectively 3. In both situations a able outcomes for highly loaded and hence potential
F I G U R E 1 0 Damaged tractor rim; (A) crack path in the wheel rim after the end of the test; (B) onset of visible crack growth at wheel
nut 2; (C) crack path along the outer edge of the pressure disk; (D) crack path at the hub side [Colour figure can be viewed at
F I G U R E 1 1 Absolute
maximum principal stress in the
area of the bolts after
preloading; (A) view from the
side of the nut; (B) view from
the side of the hub [Colour
figure can be viewed at
crack initiation points. Figure 11 depicts the stress situa- unloaded. The view of the hub side shows also higher
tion after the preloading of the bolts. The view of the nut stresses in the location of the pressure disks of the nuts
side (A) and of the hub side (B) shows the absolute maxi- although the distribution is smoother due to the stiffness
mum principal stress. Thus, the principal stress with the of the hub. The contour plots in Figure 11 represent the
maximum absolute value is shown. Tensile stresses are initial stress state for the following loading by a normal
positive and compressive stresses are negative. The view and lateral force.
of the nut side shows a stress concentration in the area of Figure 12 shows the stress situation with F N,2R and
the pressure disks of the bolts. All other material is nearly F L,2R acting at 0 . The view of the nut side depicts higher
F I G U R E 1 2 Absolute
maximum principal stress in the
area of the bolts with load acting
at 0 ; (A) view from the side of
the nut; (B) view from the side
of the hub [Colour figure can be
com]
FIGURE 13 Principal stresses of one representative element, stresses in N/mm2 [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
loads at the top half of the rim. Here, the absolute maxi- lower half is dominated by tensile stress. Contrarily to
mum principal stress range from about 700 to 400 N/ this, the view of the hub side shows that the upper half is
mm2. The view of the nut side in subfigure Figure 12A dominated by tensile stress and the lower half shows
shows that the upper half is nearly unloaded and the compressive stresses at the edge between the hub and the
F I G U R E 1 4 Result of life
in cycles, view of the nut side
F I G U R E 1 5 Result of life
in cycles, view of the hub side
rim. The absolute values of the compressive stresses are loading it is mandatory to perform a fatigue analysis by
higher than the yielding limit. This may happen if all using the critical plane approach in a further step.
principal stresses are negative as it appears in a hydro- Figures 14 and 15 present the result of the fatigue
static stress condition. Comparing the absolute values, analysis. The color scale is equal for both figures and
the stresses at the hub side are higher. The contour plot shows the computed life of the material in cycles. In this
of the absolute maximum stress enables a rough impres- example, one cycle is one rotation of the rim. The scale
sion of the dominant principal stress but no information ranges from 50,000 cycles as minimum (red) to two mil-
about the values of the other principal stresses and the lion cycles (light blue). All elements with more than two
direction of the principal stress. Therefore, the principal million cycles are pigmented in dark blue.
stresses of one representative element will be analyzed. The view of the nut side shows a circle along the
Figure 13 depicts the tensor of the principal stresses outer ends of the pressure disks. A minimum in cycles
for one representative element of the rim for all load arises at the left and right side of the pressure disk. One
steps. The element is located at the hub side at the edge reason for the alternating value could be the limited
between the hub and the rim where the highest absolute number of load steps. Hence, it could be possible that the
principal stresses were observed in Figure 12B. The color values become smoother by computing more substeps
of the arrows indicates whether it is the major, mid, or per one rotation. Analyzing the absolute values, it can be
minor principal stress. Additionally, the length of the stated the minimum is about 300,000 cycles.
arrow correlates to the absolute value which is also noted The view of the hub side in Figure 15 shows notice-
by the stress in N/mm 2. Due to the planar view of the able lower values for life. The pre-holes of the bolts and
tensor, mostly only two arrows are visible. The analysis the edge contact point between hub and rim are the posi-
of the stress tensor shows that the principal axis is rotat- tions with the lowest value for life. The minimum is
ing. This indicates a non-proportional loading. Moreover, about 51,300 cycles and located at the outer edge of the
the tensile stresses dominate for the load steps 90 –270 hub. The values at the pre-hole are about 100,000 cycles.
and the compressive stresses dominate for all other load Based on the results of the fatigue analysis it can be
steps. This means that the material is damaged by a expected that cracks can occur at the bore holes of the
reversed loading. Due to the fact of a non-proportional bolts or the outer edge of the hub, whereas the results
indicate that the outer edge of the hub is a bit more criti- This was also observed in the finite element analysis
cal. This agrees to the experimental results where the as a third step. An analysis of the principal stresses shows
cracks start at the outer edge of the hub. a non-proportional loading of the material. A fatigue
Comparing the absolute values for the life between analysis using the critical plane approach pointed out
the experiment and the simulation model a good agree- that elements at the outer contour of the hub show the
ment can be noticed. In the experiment the crack was minimum values for life. Hence, at these locations it is
observed the first time after 45,600 cycles and the numer- most probable that a fatigue crack starts. The numerical
ical model shows a fatigue crack after 51,300 cycles. results indicate that the crack starts at the hub side and
However, the crack length in the experiment by the first propagates to the nut side. The comparison of the life
detection was about 2 20 mm. The means the crack shows a good agreement in the number of rotations
was initiated some cycles before 45,600 cycles. Further- between the numerical and experimental results.
more, the numerical result is compared to a single experi- The damage scenario found in the experiments and
mental result. Thus, another test can lead to another numerical results corresponds to the damage found at the
number of load cycles like it is typical for fatigue test of rear wheel rims of tractors in reality. With the knowledge
components. Nevertheless, the agreement between the gained in the experiments and the numerical analysis,
measured and the computed life is quite good. the damage hypothesis can be seen as confirmed. Thus,
Due to the numerical results it can be expected that the circumferential bending stress resulting from the disk
the fatigue crack starts at the hub side and not at the nut depth eET and cornering is the main cause of fatigue
side. This is a valuable information concerning the preven- cracks in the bolt circle of tractor rims. In order to avoid
tion of this damage scenario. Thus, it would be impactful or to reduce the probability of a fatigue crack it seems to
to modify the hub by increasing the outer diameter. be useful to modify the geometry of the hub in order to
reduce the stress concentration at the contact area
between hub and rim.
4 | C ON C L U S I ON
A C KN O WL ED G EME N T S
In the present work a systematic investigation of the prob- The authors like to thank Dr. Sebastian Henkel for his
lem of fatigue cracks in tractor rims is carried out. In the help to prepare the material test specimen and for per-
work, relevant influences are outlined and damage mecha- forming the tension tests. We would also thank the
nisms are identified. An analytical model of the entire Grasdorf GmbH for providing the rim test specimen. The
tractor is created in the first step, which determines the investigations of this paper were done without any
reaction forces resulting from the dynamic driving loads at funding. Open access funding enabled and organized by
the contact points of the wheels. In this case, the driving Projekt DEAL.
situations accelerating/braking, cornering and driving at
across slopes as well as combinations of these has been CONFLICT OF INTEREST
considered. To reduce model complexity, tire properties We know of no conflicts of interest associated with this
are not included in the calculations and the Coulomb fric- publication, and there has been no significant financial
tion model is used. Hence, the frictional force is linear pro- support for this work that could have influenced its
portional to the normal force. The proportionality factor is outcome.
the static friction coefficient μ. Based on the obtained
equations, a submodel considering a single wheel is cre- DA TA AVAI LA BI LI TY S T ATE ME NT
ated to calculate the reaction forces and moments at the All test results (of the tensile tests and one of the compo-
interface between the wheel and hub. nent tests) are included in the paper. The simulations
The second step investigates the fatigue behavior of results are also included in the paper. It is welcome to
tractor rims using a servo hydraulic test rig, which enables contact the corresponding author for any details of the
the simulation of cornering or driving across slopes. The tests or the simulation model.
observed damage of tractor rims can be reproduced with
the cyclic life tests. The crack initiation takes place in the NOMENCLATURE
region of the bolt circle. A color penetration test32 was BC bolt circle
done to visualize the crack path. Therefore, the tested rim COG center of gravity
was injected with red color. The subsequent usage of chalk EUWA European wheel manufacturer
spray showed the arisen crack in the specimen. The pene- ETRTO European tire and Rim Technical
trant testing pointed out that the crack path is identical to Organization
the outer contour of the hub. SWT Smith, Watson, Topper
UML+ universal material law plus RE FER EN CES

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Fatigue Fract Eng Mat Struct - 2022 - Wöllner - Fatigue Behavior of Agricultural Rims Under Rotating Bending Load

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Received: 14 January 2022 Revised: 25 March 2022 Accepted: 30 March 2022

Fatigue behavior of agricultural rims under rotating

Uli Wöllner | Robert Szlosarek | Matthias Kröger

Institute for Machine Elements, Design

1 | INTRODUCTION explanations for the damage scenarios shown in Figure 1.

Fatigue Fract Eng Mater Struct. 2022;45:2143–2158. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ffe 2143

during acceleration and to a centrifugal force F N,2 ¼ F N,2F þ F N,2R ð8Þ

m 2 is calculated as the sum of the single contact forces F N,2F

F I G U R E 4 Curves for the

F I G U R E 6 Geometry and dimensions in

F I G U R E 8 Forces of the hydraulic

Fatigue strength coefficient σ 0f (N=mm2 ) 758.02

3 | R ES U L T S A N D D I S C U S S I O N 3.2 | Numerical results

UML+ universal material law plus RE FER EN CES

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