Influence of Graded Surface Decarburization of Automobile Forging Front Axle on the Bending Behavior Based on a Third-Order Shear Deformation Beam Theory

During the forging process of automobile front axle, the steel near the surface is often decarburized for a certain depth. The mechanical properties at the decarburization layer are graded and different from the inner area, influencing the bending behavior of axles under heavy loads. In this paper, the decarburized forging of front axle is regarded as a rectangular thick sandwich beam, composed of a homogeneous core and the functionally graded layer coated on both bottom and top surface. A Third-order Shear Deformation Theory (TSDT) is employed to investigate the static bending behaviors under two point-loads. The properties of sandwich FG material are represented with a piecewise power-law function, and the displacement field governing equations are derived through the virtual work principle. The Navier analytical method and numerical DQM procedures are employed to obtain the bending responses under simply supported boundary conditions, and the results are validated through the comparison with an example in the literature. Then, the transverse deflection, rotation, axial stress, and shear stress are studied in terms of different power-law exponents, decarburization depth, unsymmetrical decarburization depth, unbalance loading, and beam sectional dimension. The study reveals the influence of surface decarburization on the bending behavior of forged automobile front axles, and contributes to the optimization of structure design.