3D printing a set of hubs (or what ever I think of)

right off the bat, these posts are getting long. im trying to answer everyones questions, but its pretty tough. if i havent answered a question, please PM me and ill be happy to clear anything up.

Have you seen how Gokiso hubs work? cyclingtips.com/2014/02/gokiso-cl­imber-hubs-review/

That seems like a lot of effort to reduce bearing wear, which isnt really an issue. plus the "suspension" theyve added is surely nulled by the tyre? Not the first hub with suspension like that Ive seen though, and really, a 3D printer would be great at making it, but to make it effective is really hard.

Anyway, im sending a few jobs through the printer. If you want to see what it looks like, check out a video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7WFVw6JOKg&feature=youtu.be

You can see a chris cross pattern on one of the rings in the top right. This is because the direction the laser is sweeping across the material changes, which in turn gives it a different reflective surface. Sorry about the shoddy video quality though, my phone was struggling to focus on it through the glass.

You should really do a convergence plot of multiple tests to make sure the model is working and tending to an ultimate stress value

I am doing convergence analysis, but not in the area you expect, instead im looking at impact. If a shed load of weight is applied to the hub over 0.01 seconds, as opposed to 0.1 seconds, how do we think it will react? well we can find out:

0.01 second loading:

0.1 second loading:

We can see the high loading rate slightly increases the stress in the heavily loaded spoke. But this is pretty meaningless because i have got no idea what the loading rate is when you go over a bump. The tyre will absorb alot of it. How much? no idea.

This is so cool. I played around with FEA tools with fusion 360, as it not only shows the stress areas but the plastic deflections on the item. Might be worth a look.

Im using Abaqus CAE for this analysis. It can essentially show me anything I want it to. And if it cant, I can always use a script to plot the analysis elsewhere. Heres the plastic strain for the model around a spoke hole. as you can see were talking about small values, which are most likely associated with the course mesh and loading conditions, so are greater than what abaqus actually thinks.

Im going to update the geometry based on these results and resubmit it.

Ideally, everything should be red. That way we will know that optimum weight has been achieved, however, im going to leave quite alot of weight on around the spoke holes, just to be sure (although, the chances are this hub will still explode :P).

Ive also shaved alot of weight off the hub. Heres the latest iteration, we can see weight savings going on in the cups

The other side of the cups is the interseting part though, these shapes ive cut out of it can be CNCd, but i really wouldnt want to try it, and it would be expensive. For the printer however, this is easy stuff.

The hub flange has also has a treatment: