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Mechanical Characterization of Automotive Electrical Wires and Wire Harnesses

Zhou, Yitong, Zhou
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1469016576

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Mechanical Engineering.
An automotive wire harness is an organized set of individual electrical wires, terminals and connectors that run throughout the entire vehicle transmitting information and electric power. Wire harnesses may be exposed to tensile, bending and torsion loads during and after being assembled in cars, causing stress and strain in the individual electrical wires without accurate validation from CAE tools. The lack of accurate CAE tools for wire harnesses has been generating extra costs to automotive OEMs for many years due to issues like rattling and interference with other parts. Present CAE software packages are not developed specifically for wire harness simulation and oversimplified models have been used such as elasticity behavior as well as ignoring taping and contact forces. To be able to develop an accurate CAE tool to simulate wire harnesses, the mechanical properties of harnesses and harness components must be fully characterized. However, due to the complexity, flexibility and high variation in wire harnesses and individual electrical wires, their mechanical properties have not been studied systematically and thoroughly in previous studies. In addition, no standards and very few experimental methods for mechanical testing of single electrical wires and wire harnesses have been developed, which led to few empirical data for CAE simulation resulting in inaccurate models. In this study, mechanical experiments have been categorized, developed and conducted on individual electrical wires and wire bundles under different loading conditions to identify key mechanical properties and behaviors. FEA researchers utilized these empirical data to create computational models for electrical wires and wire bundles. The experiments for individual electrical wires were categorized into tensile, bending and torsion tests. From tensile tests, stress-strain curves of three different wires were obtained, and elastic modulus, yield strength, elongation as well as ultimate tensile strength (UTS) were identified. Wires of different types and dimensions showed different properties especially in elongation and UTS. Two bending tests including compression and cantilever bending tests were set up and conducted. In both tests, motion capture was utilized to identify the deflection of wires throughout the whole deformation process. Compression bending tests were conducted under compression load similar to fixed end buckling for four different wires. Results show that there is a large difference in initial force between the samples, which indicates difficulty in FEA simulation. In addition, motion capture plots and pictures showed large differences in deflection orientation but minor out of plane deflection. Cantilever bending test showed more consistency in the load, especially in the initial regime. Torsion tests were conducted based on a force controlled method. The results showed that the rotation angle is highly rate dependent due to creep behavior. Cyclic compression bending tests were conducted on wire bundles with a different and larger setup. Shape deflection was captured by motion capture and force data was collected by load cell. The force data at the first load showed large differences at the beginning for different samples while were very consistent when bent and in other cycles. Plasticity behavior was found in all tests, using which the simulation aspects were able to develop more accurate plastic models for electrical wires and wire bundles under different loading conditions.
Marcelo Dapino (Advisor)
Soheil Soghrati (Committee Member)
130 p.
Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering, Automotive, Electrical

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Zhou, Zhou, Y. (2016). Mechanical Characterization of Automotive Electrical Wires and Wire Harnesses [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1469016576

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zhou, Zhou, Yitong. Mechanical Characterization of Automotive Electrical Wires and Wire Harnesses. 2016. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1469016576.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zhou, Zhou, Yitong. "Mechanical Characterization of Automotive Electrical Wires and Wire Harnesses." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1469016576

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1469016576
122
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.