This project involved learning how to improve upon functional, but not optimal, design. Using a basic bike crank as a control, I performed an ANSYS stress analysis to simulate the response of the crank to repetitive pedal rotations and determine its maximum stress tolerances. Based on these results, I was able to restructure the bike crank for better weight-performance optimization.
Basic Bike Crank
Original bike crank stress analysis
Optimized Design
Above is my new bike crank design, optimizing the weight of the bike crank while achieving certain factors of safety with the applied and fatigue stresses.
This part redesign reduces the weight by 55% and increases its maximum strength by 11%.
I did this project in Fall 2015 for MAE 3250, Analysis of Mechanical and Aerospace Structures.