Conventional designs of bus bodies have more weight and which will affect the carrying capacity, performance and resulting higher fuel consumption. This project describes a new approach and specific design procedure for more lightweight bus body design. The purpose of this project is to redesign the parameters like gauges, materials, geometry/shapes, topology variables, weld pitch, joints for improving the structure so that the total weight of the bus is reduced. A light weight design of bus body structure is designed and structural analysis of the body structure under different load conditions is done. The modeling will be done on solidworks 2014 and analysis part will be done on ANSYS 14

A, Srinivasan

Manoj, M

Nivash, V

R, Dhinesh

International Research Journal of Automotive Technology (IRJAT)

        
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY (IRJAT) 
 
http://www.mapletreejournals.com/index.php/IRJAT                   
Received 28 March 2018                      ISSN 2581-5865 
Accepted 28 March 2018                   2018; 1(2);112-117 
Published online 30 March 2018 
Design and Analysis of Bus Body Right Side Frame 
V. Nivash 1, R. Dhinesh 2*, A. Srinivasan2, M. Gopi shanker2, M. Manoj 2 
1Asst Professor, Dept of Mech Engg, Sri Shanmugha College of Engg and Tech, Salem, Tamil Nadu 
 2U.G Students, , Dept of Mech Engg, Sri Shanmugha College of Engg and Tech, Salem, Tamil Nadu 
*Corresponding author E-Mail ID: dhineshr22@gmail.com, Mobile: 9789522965 
ABSTRACT 
Conventional designs of bus bodies have more weight and which will affect the carrying 
capacity, performance and resulting higher fuel consumption. This project describes a new 
approach and specific design procedure for more lightweight bus body design. The purpose of 
this project is to redesign the parameters like gauges, materials, geometry/shapes, topology 
variables, weld pitch, joints for improving the structure so that the total weight of the bus is 
reduced. A light weight design of bus body structure is designed and structural analysis of the 
body structure under different load conditions is done. The modeling will be done on solidworks 
2014 and analysis part will be done on ANSYS 14. 
 
Keywords— Carrying Capacity, Light Weight, Structure, Topology Variables. 
1. INTRODUCTION    
The bus body structure must be balanced in directive to obtain the protection when the 
bus is running, body must be suitably strong in both the condition of associate normal loads and 
accident loads. The body comprises of six main components, the left frame side, the right frame 
side, the front frame side, the back frame side, the top frame side and the bottom frame side. The 
left and the right side are related but the left side is normally composed of passenger doors. On 
the other side, the right side has two doors, the driver door and the emergency door. The sides 
are concerned to be critical parts and they must be strong. The static load response of simple 
structures, such as uniform beams, plates and cylindrical shells, may be obtained by solving their 
equations of motion. The cross section that is commonly used in making the bus body frames is 
tubular sections (square and rectangular). The C-channel sections are also for providing strength 
and stiffness. Among the materials used for the frames GI tubular and structural steels are 
commonly used. Since the stiffness is the main criterion for minimizing deflection and 
improving strength, studies are conducted on the properties of materials. It is found that the 
young’s modulus, which is a measure of stiffness, is high for structural steel. Also the load 
bearing capacity is higher for structural steel. Hence structural steel is selected as the material for 
analysis. The behavior of the structure under different load conditions like static, cornering etc. 
are also analyzed. The scope of this project is to provide a light weight design which will reduce 
the weight as well as improve the stability under all the driving conditions. The shear stress 
acting on the frames is also evaluated. 
 
 
 
V.Nivash  et al. / International Research Journal of Automotive Technology 2018; 1(2): 112-117 
2. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS   
  
2.1. Design parameters 
  
The design parameters were selected from reference papers and from Original Equipment 
Manufacturing. The design modifications are done by reducing number of elements and 
thickness without compromising the structural strength. The dimensions are made according to 
the bus body regulations by automotive industry standards AIS052. The existing frame section is 
tubular section with number of supporting members. Here two models, one with less number of 
supporting elements are compared with existing model. This reducing the materials used and 
there by reduces the weight also. The length, width, track and wheel base are kept constant and 
only the frame elements and their dimensions are modified. Also at the point where more shear 
force and bending moments are acting stiffeners are provided. More iteration must be done for 
finding which all elements have to be redesigned or avoided. Edge fillets are provided to avoid 
stress concentration. The simple structural surface method is used to check the continuity of load 
path. This method is used while modifying the design. 
   
2.2. Modeling using solidworks 
   
The three dimensional model is modeled using Solidworks. The two different models 
were modeled. The model 1 having a number of supporting members and model 2 with less 
number of supports. The dimensions obtained from the design analysis are used to model the 
sections. During Design and Analysis of a Bus Body Side Frame modeling the structure, weight 
reduction is the prime objective. Redundant structures are identified and avoided. These helps in 
reducing the weight and offers better load path continuity. It also helps to reduce the volume of 
material used in making the bus body. This makes the frame more economical. The same tubular 
sections are used for both designs. 
Table 1 Design Parameters 
 
S.N PARAMETERS DIMENSIONS (mm) 
1. Length 11500 
2. Height 2890 
3. Wheel Base 5840 
4. Tubular sections-size 40*40 and 60*40 
 
 
 
 
V.Nivash  et al. / International Research Journal of Automotive Technology 2018; 1(2): 112-117 
Table 2 Different loads acting on the right side frame in the analysis 
 
S.N LOAD WEIGHT (N) 
1. 40% of weight on Rear frame 120 
2. 40% of weight on Front frame 50 
3. 40% of weight on Top frame 130 
4. Cornering load 12000 
5. Luggage 250 
 
2.3 Analysis Using ANSYS  
 
The analysis of the modeled structure is carried out by using ANSYS 14.0 software. 
Before going into the analysis the ideal mesh size that will provide the correct mesh size is found 
out by the method of mesh convergence. For doing mesh convergence, the structure is selected 
and the size of the element is varied from course to fine and the deflections formed are detected. 
It is found that optimum result is obtained when the element size is 7mm. The meshing adopted 
for analysis is quadrilateral meshing and element selected is solid 85. Since the quadrilateral 
meshing have lower skewers and it improves mesh quality and convergence. It has 114956 nodes 
and 55656 elements. The analysis is carried out by giving the different loads acting on the right 
side frame. The weight of front, top and rear frames are shared by side frames and bottom frames 
from which chassis takes the loading. So the portions of load due to frame weights are given as 
homogeneously distributed load. The luggage weight is given on the particular frame member as 
uniformly distributed load. In addition to these loads, a cornering load is given during the 
analysis while cornering. Both the Von-Mises stress and shear stress are calculated and 
compared. 
 
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION    
 
3.1 Static Analysis  
 
From the analysis, it is clear that for the equal loading condition, the  model 2 design with 
less number of elements are have less stress developed. The shear stress is also lower for model 2 
design. From the above figure 1 and 2, it is clear that in both the cases the maximum stress is 
developed at the linkages above the wheel arches. The minimum stress is developed at mid 
points of the middle frame members. 
 
 
 
 
V.Nivash  et al. / International Research Journal of Automotive Technology 2018; 1(2): 112-117 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig. 1 Equivalent stress developed for model 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig. 2 Equivalent stress developed for model 2 
 
 
 
V.Nivash  et al. / International Research Journal of Automotive Technology 2018; 1(2): 112-117 
3.2. Cornering  
In case of cornering, the main part of cornering load is substitute on the side frames. 
When the vehicle turns a left turn most of the weight shifts to the right side in lateral direction. 
Hence a portion of load is applied on to the right side frame and Von-Mises stresses are 
evaluated. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig. 3 Shear stress developed for model 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Fig. 4 Shear stress developed for model 2 
 
V.Nivash  et al. / International Research Journal of Automotive Technology 2018; 1(2): 112-117 
4. CONCLUSIONS  
  The conventional bus body is modeled and the factors affecting the weight of the bus 
bodies were studied. The light weight approach for a bus body influences the manufacturing cost, 
vehicle handling and stability as well as the overall performance. The two methods adopted for 
the light weight design are by reducing the number of frames elements and supporting frames 
elements and secondly the topology (thickness, gauges etc.) optimization. The analysis part is 
done on two different model 1 and model 2 (with less supporting elements) develops less stress 
in both static structural analysis and in case of cornering condition. 
 
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1.  C. Liang & G.N. Lee, 2010, ‘Analysis of bus rollover protection under legislated 
standards using Ls-Dyna software simulation techniques, international journal of automotive 
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2.  Guruprasad T, D. SatishBabu & Dr. Maruthi B H, 2015, ‘Bus body structural strength 
analysis through FEA’, International Journal for Technological Research in Engineering, vol. 
2, Issue 11   
3.  Shigetaka Kameyama, Shigeo Fujita, and Shinichi Kaji, 2015, ‘Elementary Body 
Structure Analysis’, SAE International, doi: 10.4271/2015-01-1321   
4. Shohei Matsuyama & Hiroyuki Yamashita, 2015, ‘Development of Smart Design 
Process for Light Weight Body in White’, SAE International, doi: 10.4271/2015-01-1365 
5.  Hee-Young Ko, Sung-Ho Hahn &Kwang-Bok Shin, 2011, ‘The suggestion of the 
standardized finite element model through the experimental verifications of various railway 
vehicle structures made of sandwich composites’ , Journal of Mechanical Science and 
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Design and Analysis of Bus Body Right Side Frame

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