Finite element analysis of car hood for impact test by using solidworks software in automotive application

A vehicle typically has two types of doors which is front doors and rear doors. The exterior side of the door is designed of steel or other material like the rest of the vehicles exterior. In the class of the metallic materials, steel, aluminium and magnesium are the most used alloys in the automotive body components. Its decorative appearance, typically coloured with a design is intended to match with the rest of the vehicle's exterior, the central purpose being toadd to the overall aesthetic appeal of the vehicle exterior. To provide the car with safety properties and different preferences of customers, a suitable door is needed. The door that is built must have high safety and at the same time can be built according to market demands.To test the door, we will be using impact test by SolidWork® to test best material that can be used as car door.Keywords: finite element analysis; impact test; Solidworks; automation, car hood.

Vehicle Concept Modeling: A New Technology for Structures Weight Reduction

AbstractThe lightening of the vehicle body structure generally aggravates the noise vibration and harshness (NVH) and the crash performances of the vehicle. The development and application of the vehicle advanced computer aided engineering (CAE) allowed the vehicle designers to considerably reduce the weight and improve the structural performance of the body. However, the current advanced (detailed) CAE model can only be available in the late design phase of the vehicle when only minor changes of the structure is feasible. Unlike the detailed CAE model, which requires all detailed design, the concept CAE model can be created without any need to the detailed CAD data and it can be created in the early (concept) design phase. Accordingly, in this paper, a concept modeling method is presented for a sedan car. This model represents the major structural dynamic characteristics of the body and enables the designers to optimize the structure in terms of the performances and mass in early design phase. The detailed CAE model of the body-in-white (BIW) of vehicle is reduced to a beam elements concept-structure so that the concept structure has similar structural dynamics behavior with the corresponding test data. The developed CAE concept model demonstrates a robust method to enhance the NVH and crash performances in early stage of design. The proposed method can be used to effectively predict and optimize the vehicle body structure and support body lightweighting design process. The reduction of BIW mass will ultimately reduce fuel consumption leading to energy efficiency and reduced pollution

An Advanced Technological Lightweighted Solution for a Body in White

Funded by the EC FP7 Program, EVolution project is using the Pininfarina Nido concept car as a baseline for its activities, with the goal to demonstrate the sustainable production of a full electric 600 kg vehicle (FEV). The project has to be finalized by the end of 2016. The existing Body in White (BiW) has been completely reviewed through a design strategy aiming to reduce the number of parts and using innovative lightweight materials and technologies. The considered Al technologies applied on high performances Al alloys provide the opportunities to obtain components with complex geometries and low thickness, merging different parts into one unique element. Besides, it is possible to process a variable thickness element with a single operation. A “green sand mold” technique allows co-casted joints among elements produced with different Al manufacturing processes. The potential cost reduction and process simplification in terms of time and assembly are promising: current state-of-the-art, based on traditional moulds, does not allow these opportunities. The BiW has been hybridized in certain areas of the underbody with a composite material of the PA family, reinforced with GF. This material has been obtained improving existing ones and developing a production process suitable for scaling to commercial requirements, throughout an advanced sheet thermoforming and 3D-injection method (CaproCAST process). Novel polypropylene nanocomposites (PNC) based on silicate and glass fiber layers demonstrate improved toughness and stiffness and have been selected for crash cross beam and side door. Polyurethane foams based on recycled polymers are explored as sustainable energy-absorbing filling in cross beam sections. Structural epoxy adhesives have been considered to join the BiW parts and welding points are reduced in number: in certain areas spot-welds have been used only to tack the parts during polymerization. In addition to the previous results, current weight of the BiW is 115 kg versus 160 kg of the baseline car. An FE-analysis on the virtual full vehicle indicates a good structural behavior, considering EU standards of crash homologation and global static and dynamic performances. The developed architecture and the integration of lightweight materials will ensure that the EU maintains its competitiveness against the Asian and United States automobile industries. This topic is focused on the results obtained on the BiW in terms of design strategies, Al and composite materials innovative technologies and joining methods.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 314744

Adaptiver Suchansatz zur multidisziplinären Optimierung von Leichtbaustrukturen unter Verwendung hybrider Metaheuristik

Within the last few years environmental regulations, safety requirements and market competitions forced the automotive industry to open up a wide range of new technologies. Lightweight design is considered as one of the most innovative concepts to fulfil environmental, safety and many other objectives at competitive prices. Choosing the best design and production process in the development period is the most significant link in the automobile production chain. A wide range of design and process parameters needs to be evaluated to achieve numerous goals of production. These goals often stand in conflict with each other. In addition to the variation of the concepts and following the objectives, some limitations such as manufacturing restrictions, financial limits, and deadlines influence the choice of the best combination of variables. This study introduces a structural optimization tool for assemblies made of sheet metal, e.g. the automobile body, based on parametrization and evaluation of concepts in CAD and CAE. This methodology focuses on those concepts, which leads to the use of the right amount of light and strong material in the right place, instead of substituting the whole structure with the new material. An adaptive hybrid metaheuristic algorithm is designed to eliminate all factors that would lead to a local minimum instead of global optimum. Finding the global optimum is granted by using some explorative and exploitative search heuristics, which are intelligently organized by a central controller. Reliability, accuracy and the speed of the proposed algorithm are validated via a comparative study with similar algorithms for an academic optimization problem, which shows valuable results. Since structures might be subject to a wide range of load cases, e.g. static, cyclic, dynamic, temperature-dependent etc., these requirements need to be addressed by a multidisciplinary optimization algorithm. To handle the nonlinear response of objectives and to tackle the time-consuming FEM analyses in crash situations, a surrogate model is implemented in the optimization tool. The ability of such tool to present the optimum results in multi-objective problems is improved by using some user-selected fitness functions. Finally, an exemplary sub-assembly made of sheet metal parts from a car body is optimized to enhance both, static load case and crashworthiness.Die Automobilindustrie hat in den letzten Jahren unter dem Druck von Umweltvorschriften, Sicherheitsanforderungen und wettbewerbsfähigem Markt neue Wege auf dem Gebiet der Technologien eröffnet. Leichtbau gilt als eine der innovativsten und offenkundigsten Lösungen, um Umwelt- und Sicherheitsziele zu wettbewerbsfähigen Preisen zu erreichen. Die Wahl des besten Designs und Verfahrens für Produktionen in der Entwicklungsphase ist der wichtigste Ring der Automobilproduktionskette. Um unzählige Produktionsziele zu erreichen, müssen zahlreiche Design- und Prozessparameter bewertet werden. Die Anzahl und Variation der Lösungen und Ziele sowie einige Einschränkungen wie Fertigungsbeschränkungen, finanzielle Grenzen und Fristen beeinflussen die Auswahl einer guten Kombination von Variablen. In dieser Studie werden strukturelle Optimierungswerkzeuge für aus Blech gefertigte Baugruppen, z. Karosserie, basierend auf Parametrisierung und Bewertung von Lösungen in CAD bzw. CAE. Diese Methodik konzentriert sich auf die Lösungen, die dazu führen, dass die richtige Menge an leichtem / festem Material an der richtigen Stelle der Struktur verwendet wird, anstatt vollständig ersetzt zu werden. Eine adaptive Hybrid-Metaheuristik soll verhindern, dass alle Faktoren, die Bedrohungsoptimierungstools in einem lokalen Minimum konvergieren, anstelle eines globalen Optimums. Das Auffinden des globalen Optimums wird durch einige explorative und ausbeuterische Such Heuristiken gewährleistet. Die Zuverlässigkeit, Genauigkeit und Geschwindigkeit des vorgeschlagenen Algorithmus wird mit ähnlichen Algorithmen in akademischen Optimierungsproblemen validiert und führt zu respektablen Ergebnissen. Da Strukturen möglicherweise einem weiten Bereich von Lastfällen unterliegen, z. statische, zyklische, dynamische, Temperatur usw. Möglichkeit der multidisziplinären Optimierung wurde in Optimierungswerkzeugen bereitgestellt. Um die nichtlineare Reaktion von Zielen zu überwinden und um den hohen Zeitverbrauch von FEM-Analysen in Absturzereignissen zu bewältigen, könnte ein Ersatzmodell vom Benutzer verwendet werden. Die Fähigkeit von Optimierungswerkzeugen, optimale Ergebnisse bei Problemen mit mehreren Zielsetzungen zu präsentieren, wird durch die Verwendung einiger vom Benutzer ausgewählten Fitnessfunktionen verbessert. Eine Unterbaugruppe aus Blechteilen, die zur Automobilkarosserie gehören, ist optimiert, um beide zu verbessern; statischer Lastfall und Crashsicherheit

Investigation, optimization and re- design of a body car part, especially in terms of weight and cost reduction, material substitution, structural rigidity and fixation system

Abstract Reducing vehicle mass in order to improve fuel efficiency is one of the biggest challenges of actually automotive society. This objective could be achieved using lighter materials or less pollutant engines, nevertheless these technologies are currently expensive and engineers must develop high efficient safety vehicles that could be economically competitive in their class. The immediate objective of this research is to analyze a body car part in order to improve its weight characteristics without compromising the main function of the component as well as the final price per unit. Different alternatives were taken into study, selecting the lightweight design as the best practice to implement in this case, reducing substantially the weight of the part, keeping strength resistance and lowest price as possible.Investigação, Otimização e Redesenho de uma Peça Automóvel, especialmente em termos de redução de massa e custos, substituição de material, rigidez estrutural e sistema de fixação. Resumo Reduzir a massa total de um veículo de modo a melhorar a sua eficiência energética é um dos maiores desafios dos grandes construtores automóveis. Este objetivo pode ser atingido através da utilização de materiais mais leves ou motores menos poluentes, contudo estas tecnologias ainda são demasiado dispendiosas, sendo que os engenheiros responsáveis pelo desenvolvimento de um novo modelo, devem fazê-lo tendo como sempre premissa um veículo extremamente eficaz em termos de segurança, sendo economicamente competitivo na sua classe. Este estudo tendo como objetivo analisar um componente utilizado na construção da carroçaria de um veículo atualmente no mercado, de modo a otimizar a sua massa, não comprometendo a sua função principal assim como o preço final por peça. Diversas alternativas foram tidas em conta, tendo sido optado como caso mais favorável a otimização de design, reduzindo substancialmente a massa do componente, mantendo a sua resistência e o mínimo investimento possível

Lightweight Composite Materials for Heavy Duty Vehicles

The main objective of this project is to develop, analyze and validate data, methodologies and tools that support widespread applications of automotive lightweighting technologies. Two underlying principles are guiding the research efforts towards this objective: • Seamless integration between the lightweight materials selected for certain vehicle systems, cost-effective methods for their design and manufacturing, and practical means to enhance their durability while reducing their Life-Cycle-Costs (LCC). • Smooth migration of the experience and findings accumulated so far at WVU in the areas of designing with lightweight materials, innovative joining concepts and durability predictions, from applications to the area of weight savings for heavy vehicle systems and hydrogen storage tanks, to lightweighting applications of selected systems or assemblies in light–duty vehicles

Dimensional variation analysis of deformable aluminium-intensive vehicle assemblies

The thesis concerns dimensional management and the provision of tools and techniques to assist designers and body engineers in the automotive industry with the tolerance specification and variation analysis of deformable aluminium-intensive vehicle (AIV) assemblies. [Continues.

Automation and robotics for the Space Exploration Initiative: Results from Project Outreach

A total of 52 submissions were received in the Automation and Robotics (A&R) area during Project Outreach. About half of the submissions (24) contained concepts that were judged to have high utility for the Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) and were analyzed further by the robotics panel. These 24 submissions are analyzed here. Three types of robots were proposed in the high scoring submissions: structured task robots (STRs), teleoperated robots (TORs), and surface exploration robots. Several advanced TOR control interface technologies were proposed in the submissions. Many A&R concepts or potential standards were presented or alluded to by the submitters, but few specific technologies or systems were suggested

Topology optimization for additive manufacturing

Topology optimization provides design engineers the opportunity to create light and complex structural parts. Additive manufacturing produces parts easier than traditional manu-facturing. Due to the above mentioned flexibility, parts that are designed for AM have the same structural load as the old parts but with reduced mass. This study utilizes topology optimization techniques, aiming to reduce the mass of the existing parts. Further weight loss is achieved by implementing lattice structure. The core of this thesis is to examine the workflow to include topology optimization in the process of design for AM. This was achieved by minimizing the mass of two parts of an electric scooter, neck and platform. The study produced new geometry for the existing parts. Cost analysis showed that the optimized design was cheaper to manufacture using the same AM method than the initial one. Within the context of the present work we came across the pros and cons of topology optimization and FEA through the Inspire software and proved that load conditions may directly affect the final result and product