Modal Analysis of Bus Body Structure using Finite Element Analysis Technique

Present work deals with evaluation of dynamic characteristics of a bus body structure. The bus under consideration is a sleeper non-air conditioned vehicle for a passenger capacity of thirty and it is designed adhering to automotive industry standards. Modal analysis of the proposed bus design is carried using Ansys Workbench. With the aid of modal analysis ten mode shapes of the bus are postulated, corresponding frequencies and deflections are estimated. Mesh generator is used to mesh the complex bus model. The deflection and frequency magnitudes of proposed bus model is found with the help of Finite Element Analysis (FEA) technique and they are in good agreement with experimental results available in literature. Engine being the prime source of excitation, it’s frequency is compared with the frequencies determined by FEA of the proposed bus body and it is observed that the frequencies of the bus body for ten different modes are far less than the minimum resonant engine frequency.