Finite Element Modeling of an Aluminum Tricycle Frame

B. Chine' [1], A. Rodríguez [1], J. Alberto Ramírez [1],
[1] School of Materials Science and Engineering, Costa Rica Institute of Technology, Cartago, Costa Rica
Published in 2016

As a sustainable urban transport system, the tricycle might represent an adaptive mobility vehicle used to transport people and bulk load. This transport system must warranty the security of its end users, then experimental and modeling works are very useful tools in order to evaluate the mechanical performance of its frame. In this work we develop a finite element model of an aluminum tricycle frame by using COMSOL Multiphysics®. The static analysis of the tricycle is carried out with the Structural Mechanics Module by applying appropriate loading conditions. Stress and deformation distributions have been evaluated for different combination of loads and the analysis of the structural characteristics of the tricycle frame has been carried out.