Main Reason of Bellow failure :

The bellow plasma weld failure due to shock load is the main reason of transformer oil
leakage. During road shocks, tie rods movements are creating contact between sharp weld
and tie rods through which wear is taking place on the weld and it is failing. Also
during transportation the bellow weld is subjected to continuous fatigue loads caused by

a) Road shocks
b) Transformer oil splash

The effect of road shocks and transformer oil splash is further increased by cantilever
type arrangement which gives more deformation at the free end resulting into more
stresses at the joints. Also Cantilever arrangement is the source of higher oscillatory
moment which creates fatigue and shear loads across the joints.
 Fig : Pot holes, bumps and uneven camber of road surface

Reason for frequent failure at the same location:

During transportation, the vehicle comes across pot holes, bumps, speed variation and
sudden brakes. Also during travel, in some areas the vehicle has to move in single roads,
where one tyre will on soft flat road, whereas other side on the uneven roads. This will
lead to vibration in the arrangement and the fluid moves side wards. Normal vibration
happens when both the tyres comes across same type of bump or pothole. Normal
vibration will not create much problem, as the load distribution is around 180 0.But when
one tyre on hump and pot hole and other on flat side, the fluid will moved towards one
side. This spread is normally for 90 0 . So this creates more effect as the load bearing area
0
is less. So 25 to 45 area in the bottom portion is more prone to this dynamic loads
which are creating the failure.

Further the problem may caused by :

Leaving the above said main problems, the weld failure also may takes place by
 Resonance in the system
Base vibration or spectrum (Road spectrum)
Separation or contact load generation due to rubbing of members due to higher
tensile load on the outer and higher compression load on the inner faces

SOLUTION METHODOLOGY :

By observation , the problem is a clear failure due to road shocks which creates fatigue
stress across the joint. So road shocks are to be minimized to reduce the high fatigue
stress generation. So a damper design need to be carried out to reduce the free
deformation at the end.

A proper g load estimation and time history graph for load is required for proper
estimation of stress generation and for proper mount design. Though weld analysis is
not in the perspective of the problem, the analysis gives better idea about how safe the
existing design for the give loads(Factor of safety estimation due to shock loads). This
helps in better shock absorption design. The g loads are the results of momentum of the
body. These loads may results in longer axis direction or transverse or normal or may be
combination of all loads. So a transient analysis is required to estimate the damper
requirements.
So the methodology includes

Estimation of theoretical deflection due to self weight of the problem

Modeling and meshing of the problem to apply Finite element methods to find
structural stress estimation to find factor of safety.
Proper g load estimation from road shocks
Checking for support condition for improvement in the deflection which is
creating the main problem
Modal analysis to find possible resonant condition
Possible sliding load estimation
Damper requirements
POTHOLES AND HUMPS ARE THE MAIN SOURCES OF VIBRATION FAILURES:

Potholes are holes in the roadway caused by excessive wear. Invariably, potholes occur in
the main stretch of the vehicle travel lanes and are very hard to avoid. Potholes have
ragged edges and tend to be up to 6 inches deep. Typically, potholes damage the upper
layer of roadway without affecting the underlying concrete base. Potholes are
caused by water seeping into the cracks of a roadway. This seepage
slowly undermines the integrity of the road surface. Cracks in the road
surface tend to form in areas where tires most frequently meet the
pavement in travel lanes. In addition, stress to the roadway from heavy
traffic weakens the asphalt road base. Once the roadway is weakened,
cracks form in the pavement allowing rainwater to seep in. A hard
winter also can cause cracking of the asphalt surfacing. Repeated
episodes of freezing and thawing expands and contracts any water
inside the roadway cracks. The intense heat from the hot summer sun
can also weaken the pavement of a heavily traveled roadway. Both can
cause an increase in the width of the cracks, which ultimately results in
the collapse of a small section of road. Once the collapse happens, a
pothole is born.

Features

Potholes tend to be round but can take on just about any shape imaginable. The major
difference between a pothole and its much larger cousin, the sinkhole, is that a pothole
doesn't undermine the underlying concrete base of a road. Sinkholes, on the other hand,
are a complete collapse of the roadbed, including the underlying ground layers. Water
filled, snow filled or ice filled potholes can damage the rims and tires of a car. It is
important to check the road during stressful weather conditions carefully to give yourself
time to avoid hitting a pothole. Driving directly through a pothole is a jarring, noticeable
event. Many news stations now post pothole reports on their websites in addition to
reporting these driving hazards on their newscasts. Of course, if you do hit a pothole,
make sure to note it's location and contact your state or county road repair agency with a
report.

LITERATURE SURVERY ON BELLOWS

Case 1 : Application of Neurofuzzy in the development of Road Bum designs, S.A.

Oke, A.O. Johnson, T.A.O.Salau, and A.O. Adeyefa, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, University of Lagos,Akoka-Lagos, Nigeria,

Abstract :

This contribution is on the development of a neurofuzzy model that aids in capturing

imprecision and uncertainty in the various road bump parameters. Road bumps are
structures built on roads to act as obstructions to vehicles plying these roads. The
neurofuzzy methodology is used to check the vehicle speeds to acceptable standards.
Particular use is made of neurofuzzy since it is an improvement on the traditional model
proposed earlier in the literature. The work is motivated by the need for a more reliable
and easily understandable methodology that guides decision makers in making correct
decisions in a timely manner. The results obtained demonstrate that it is feasible to apply
the model in practice. The paper is new in that it proposes a novel approach to
quantifying the results of road bump design in order to achieve worthy and reliable result.

Case 2 : The effect of Road surfacing condition on tyre life,W.JVDM STEYN and
M HAW, CSIR Trasportek, PO Box 395,Pretoria, 0001, Bridgestone SA(Pty) Ltd.
Abstract :
Road engineers usually maintain roads with the objective of supplying a road surface
with a certain serviceability standard. This serviceability standard typically include
aspects such as the allowable rutting, skid resistance and riding quality of the road. While
the road is performing within the set requirements for functional and structural
performance, the road is deemed to be in a serviceable condition. Once these parameters
are exceeded the road will be maintained using an option ranging from simle patching of
potholes and sealing of cracks to a reseal of the road or even recycling and rehabilitation
of the failed sections of the road.

These maintenance actions affect the surfacing of the road and therefore the experience of
the tyre in contact with the road surface. Tyres are typically designed to operate under
specific conditions that include the applied vehicular load, tyre inflation pressure,
temperature, allowable tyre deflection etc. It is generally assumed that as long as the road
surface is relatively even and the vehicle not overloaded, the tyres will not be
overstressed using the road.

Tyre engineers conduct route studies on routes to determine the stresses and strains that a
tyre will experience when traveling along the specific route. The route studies include an
evaluation of concepts such as the rutting on the road, but also focus on factors causing
undue stresses and strains on a tyre using the road. These include the excess heat built up
as a tyre has to transverse uneven surfaces and potholes, the stresses caused by varying
surface textures due to differences in road surface type and patches in specific wheel
lanes, and the subsequent reduction in tyre life due to use on a specific route.

In this paper some of the aspects typically investigated in such a route study are
highlighted, and the typical factors affecting the tyre life discussed. The paper is partly
based on experiences with various routes in the country and it aims to highlight to road
engineers and roads authorities the major role that they can play in potentially extending
the lives of tyres using their roads, and ultimately in the national economy through lower
transport costs and improved safety conditions.

Case 3 : Estimation of fatigue damage caused by actual roads and maneuvers on

proving ground G.H. Farrahi A, Khalaj, School of Mechanical Engineering,
Shariff University of Technology, Tehran, iran, Automotive Industries Research and
Innovation Center of Saipa, Iran
Abstract : The objective of this paper is to estimate the cumulative fatigue damage in a
vehicle component and to calculate the number of cycles driven on the proving ground to
achieve the equivalent accumulated fatigue damage in design life.
In order to achieve the objective Ground events are provided to simulate using ADAMS
software. The load time history results were applied to an FEM model created in
MSC/Nastran. Modal transient dynamic analysis was used to obtain the stress time
history in the test component. The results showed that fast cornering has a greater
damage effect than slow and moderate cornering. For primary evaluation of fatigue life
the cornering analysis sufficient. The proving ground events had much more destruction
effect than actual roads as the fatigue damage accumulated on our test component.
Driving 1568 cycles(2462km) on a proving ground was equal to driving 200000km on
actual roads.

Case 4 : Assessing tire forces due to radway unevenness by the pothole dynamic
amaplification factor method . A.V.Pestereva, L.A. Bergman, C.A. Tan, B. Yang,
Institute for systems analysis, Russian Academy of Science,Pr.60-letiya Oktyabrya 9,
Moscow 117312, Russia,

Abstract
A technique is developed to assess the dynamic contact forces arising after passing road
surface
irregularities bya vehicle modelled as a general linear MDOF system. The equations
governing vibration of a vehicle moving along an uneven profile are, first, transformed to
the state-space form and, then, to a system of uncoupled first order complex differential
equations. For a local roadway irregularity described functionally, solutions of all
equations are found analytically and expressed in terms of a unique function of one
complex variable, the so-called pothole dynamic amplification factor, which is specific to
the irregularity shape. The solutions obtained are combined to give dependencies of the
harmonic components of the contact forces arising after the passage of the irregularity on
the vehicle speed and irregularity dimensions. The problem is shown to be decomposed
into separate calculation of vehicle and pothole-specific data. The technique developed is
not specific to a particular vehicle model or an irregularity shape: the vehicle model
is represented byits mass, stiffness, and damping matrices, and the replacement of one
irregularity by another simply requires replacement of one dynamic amplification factor
function by another. The latter are derived in Appendix A for several pothole
configurations. The discussion is amply illustrated by examples of the application of the
technique to the calculation of the tire forces for two simple vehicle models and several
potholes of different shape.

Case 5 : Wheel Lift-Off and Ride Comfort of Three-wheeled Vehicle over Bump
T R Gawade, Dr. S Mukherjee, Prof D Mohan, Department of Mechanical
Engineering IIT Delhi, New Delhi,110016.

An in-plane five degree of freedom (dof) mathematical model of a three-wheeled vehicle

(TWV) is used to study the influence of bump profiles on occupant injury. The model is
validated against vertical acceleration measured when an instrumented TWV is passed
over a road bump. Half sine wave, harmonic and cycloidal bump profiles of the same
peak height and span are considered. The simulation results indicate that wheel lift-off
over bump occurs at the lowest initial longitudinal velocity for cycloidal profile.
Estimation using the dominant acceleration peak indicates that even at wheel lift-off
speeds, the predicted
accelerations are below the tolerance limits. A frequency domain indicates that the level
of sustained vibration does not exceed the ISO 2631 and BS 6841 tolerance limits.

Case 6 : A novel approach to the calculation of pothole-induced contact forces in

MDOF vehicle models, A.V. Pesterev, L.A.Bergman, C.A. Tan, Institute for Systems
Analysis, Russian Academy of Sciences, pr.60-letiya, Oktyabrya 9, Moscow, 117312
Russia

Abstract
A technique is developed to predict the dynamic contact forces arising after passing road
surface irregularities by a vehicle modeled as an undamped multiple-degrees of freedom
(MDOF) system. An MDOF system moving along an uneven profile is decomposed into
an aggregate of independent oscillators in the modal space, such that the response of each
oscillator can be calculated independently. An equation relating the contact forces in the
physical space to the modal forces is established. The technique developed is applied to
the calculation of the coefficients of the harmonic components of the contact forces
arising after the passage of a \cosine" pothole. The application of the technique to various
problems, such as evaluation of the effect of parameter modifications on the vehicle
dynamics and reduction of vehicle models in bridge related problems, as well as its
extension to the damped case, are also discussed. One interesting phenomenon reported
in the DIVINE project , regarding the replacement of a steel suspension by an air
suspension resulted in increase of the maximum response of short-span bridges is
explained by applying the technique suggested. The discussion is amply illustrated by
examples of the application of the technique to the calculation of the tire forces due to a
pothole for two simple|quarter-car and half-car-vehicle models.

Case 7 : Virtual Proving Ground A CAE tool for Automative Durability, Ride &
Handling and NVH Applications ,Arthur Tang, Nasser Tamini, David Yang,

Abstract : the virtual proving ground approach has been developed for simulation of
dynamic nonlinear events as applied to automotive durability, ride & handling and
noise/vibration/harshness applications. This finite element analysis technique provides a
unique method to create and analyze vehicle system models, capable of including vehicle
suspensions, power trains and body structures in a single simulation. Through the
development of this methodology, event based simulations of the vehicle performance,
over a given three dimensional road surface can be performed. The development of
methodologies and approaches for performing this type of analysis will be discussed,
which make up a virtual proving ground environment. Case studies will be presented to
show the application of this methodology to a full vehicle system for vehicle durability,
ride & handling and noise/vibration/harshness applications. The results of this case study
will highlight the potential applications of this approach as well as the challenges
associated with the method.