DETC2004-57301 DECOMPOSITION-BASED ASSEMBLY SYNTHESIS OF SPACE FRAME STRUCTURES USING JOINT LIBRARY

ABSTRACT This paper presents a method for identifying the optimal designs of components and joints in the space frame body structures of passenger vehicles considering structural characteristics, manufacturability and assembleability. Dissimilar to our previous work based on graph decomposition, the problem is posed as a simultaneous determination of the locations and types of joints in a structure and the cross sections of the joined structural frames, selected from a predefined joint library. The joint library is a set of joint designs containing the geometry of the feasible joints at each potential joint location and the cross sections of the joined frames, associated with their structural characteristics as equivalent torsional springs obtained from the finite element analyses of the detailed joint geometry. Structural characteristics of the entire structure are evaluated by finite element analyses of a beam-spring model constructed from the selected joints and joined frames. Manufacturability and assembleability are evaluated as the manufacturing and assembly costs estimated from the geometry of the components and joints, respectively. The optimization problem is solved by a multi-objective genetic algorithm using a direct crossover. A case study on an aluminum space frame (ASF) of a middle size passenger vehicle is discussed

Automated extraction of chemical structure information from digital raster images

Background: To search for chemical structures in research articles, diagrams or text representing molecules need to be translated to a standard chemical file format compatible with cheminformatic search engines. Nevertheless, chemical information contained in research articles is often referenced as analog diagrams of chemical structures embedded in digital raster images. To automate analog-to-digital conversion of chemical structure diagrams in scientific research articles, several software systems have been developed. But their algorithmic performance and utility in cheminformatic research have not been investigated. Results: This paper aims to provide critical reviews for these systems and also report our recent development of ChemReader -- a fully automated tool for extracting chemical structure diagrams in research articles and converting them into standard, searchable chemical file formats. Basic algorithms for recognizing lines and letters representing bonds and atoms in chemical structure diagrams can be independently run in sequence from a graphical user interface-and the algorithm parameters can be readily changed-to facilitate additional development specifically tailored to a chemical database annotation scheme. Compared with existing software programs such as OSRA, Kekule, and CLiDE, our results indicate that ChemReader outperforms other software systems on several sets of sample images from diverse sources in terms of the rate of correct outputs and the accuracy on extracting molecular substructure patterns. Conclusion: The availability of ChemReader as a cheminformatic tool for extracting chemical structure information from digital raster images allows research and development groups to enrich their chemical structure databases by annotating the entries with published research articles. Based on its stable performance and high accuracy, ChemReader may be sufficiently accurate for annotating the chemical database with links to scientific research articles.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90875/1/Saitou8.pd

Decomposition-based assembly synthesis based on structural considerations.

Most structural products have complex geometry to meet customer's demand of high functionality with enhanced structural stability. However, manufacturing those products in one piece requires sophisticated methods of manufacturing processes that will increase the total production cost. For this reason, most structural products are multi-component structures: they are made of number of components and these components are assembled into the final structure. Generally, designing a multi-component structural product requires designers to decompose overall product geometry in to the components set at some point during the design process. The components set decided there will be assembled into the final product. This research presents methods that systematically decompose product geometry into the components set considering the structural stiffness of the end product. Methods of parameterizing components set of a structure are represented by using the structural topology graph. The structural stiffness of the assembled structure for the given components set is evaluated as one of the objective functions by using the FE analysis. In order to model the assembled structure with different components set in FE, the methods of modeling the joinings between components are presented. In addition to the structural stiffness, the methods of evaluating the manufacturability and assembleability of given components set are discussed and used as the other objective functions. The Pareto optimal decompositions for this optimization problem are obtained by combining the FE analysis with a multi-objective genetic algorithm using graph-based crossover, exhibiting trade-offs among the objectives including the structural stiffness, component manufacturability (size and simplicity), and the assembleability.Ph.D.Applied SciencesMechanical engineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/124251/2/3137885.pd

Decomposition-Based Assembly Synthesis of Space Frame Structures Using Joint Library

This paper presents a method for identifying the optimal designs of components and joints in the space frame body structures of passenger vehicles considering structural characteristics, manufacturability, and assembleability. Dissimilar to our previous work based on graph decomposition, the problem is posed as a simultaneous determination of the locations and types of joints in a structure and the cross sections of the joined structural frames, selected from a predefined joint library. The joint library is a set of joint designs containing the geometry of the feasible joints at each potential joint location and the cross sections of the joined frames, associated with their structural characteristics as equivalent torsional springs obtained from the finite element analyses of the detailed joint geometry. Structural characteristics of the entire structure are evaluated by finite element analyses of a beam-spring model constructed from the selected joints and joined frames. Manufacturability and assembleability are evaluated as the manufacturing and assembly costs estimated from the geometry of the components and joints, respectively. The optimization problem is solved by a multiobjective genetic algorithm using a direct crossover. A case study on an aluminum space frame of a midsize passenger vehicle is discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87196/4/Saitou18.pd

Decomposition-Based Assembly Synthesis of a Three-Dimensional Body-in-White Model for Structural Stiffness

This paper presents an extension of our previous work on decomposition-based assembly synthesis for structural stiffness, where the three-dimensional finite element model of a vehicle body-in-white (BIW) is optimally decomposed into a set of components considering (1) stiffness of the assembled structure under given loading conditions, (2) manufacturability, and (3) assembleability of components. Two case studies, each focusing on the decomposition of a different portion of a BIW, are discussed. In the first case study, the side frame is decomposed for the minimum distortion of front door frame geometry under global bending. In the second case study, the side/floor frame and floor panels are decomposed for the minimum floor deflections under global bending. In each case study, multiobjective genetic algorithm with graph-based crossover, combined with finite element methods analyses, is used to obtain Pareto optimal solutions. Representative designs are selected from the Pareto front and trade-offs among stiffness, manufacturability, and assembleability are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87194/4/Saitou26.pd

Decomposition-Based Assembly Synthesis of a 3D Body-in-White Model for Structural Stiffness

This paper presents an extension of our previous work on decomposition-based assembly synthesis for structural stiffness [1], where the 3D finite element model of a vehicle body-in-white (BIW) is optimally decomposed into a set of components considering the stiffness of the assembled structure under given loading conditions, as well as the manufacturability and assembleability or components. Two case studies, each focusing on the decomposition of a different portion of a BIW, are discussed. In the first case study, the side frame is decomposed for the minimum distortion of front door frame geometry under global bending. In the second case study, the side/floor frame and floor panels are decomposed for the minimum floor deflections under global bending. In each case study, multi-objective genetic algorithm [2,3] with graph-based crossover [4,5], combined with FEM analyses, is used to obtain Pareto optimal solutions. Representative designs are selected from the Pareto front and trade-offs among stiffness, manufacturability, and assembleability are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87201/4/Saitou90.pd

Decomposition-Based Assembly Synthesis for Structural Stiffness

This paper presents a method that systematically decomposes product geometry into a set of components considering the structural stiffness of the end product. A structure is represented as a graph of its topology, and the optimal decomposition is obtained by combining FEM analyses with a Genetic Algorithm. As the first case study, the side frame of a passenger car is decomposed for the minimum distortion of the front door panel geometry. As the second case study, the under body frame of a passenger car is decomposed for the minimum frame distortion. In both case studies, spot-weld joints are considered as joining methods, where each joint, which may contain multiple weld spots, is modeled as a torsional spring. First, the rates of the torsional springs are treated as constant values obtained in the literature. Second, they are treated as design variables within realistic bounds. By allowing the change in the joint rates, it is demonstrated that the optimal decomposition can achieve the smaller distortion with less amount of joint stiffness (hence less welding spots), than the optimal decomposition with the typical joint rates available in the literature.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87193/4/Saitou34.pd

Decomposition-Based Assembly Synthesis of Space Frame Structures Using Joint Library

This paper presents a method for identifying the optimal designs of components and joints in the space frame body structures of passenger vehicles considering structural characteristics, manufacturability and assembleability. Dissimilar to our previous work based on graph decomposition, the problem is posed as a simultaneous determination of the locations and types of joints in a structure and the cross sections of the joined structural frames, selected from a predefined joint library. The joint library is a set of joint designs containing the geometry of the feasible joints at each potential joint location and the cross sections of the joined frames, associated with their structural characteristics as equivalent torsional springs obtained from the finite element analyses of the detailed joint geometry. Structural characteristics of the entire structure are evaluated by finite element analyses of a beam-spring model constructed from the selected joints and joined frames. Manufacturability and assembleability are evaluated as the manufacturing and assembly costs estimated from the geometry of the components and joints, respectively. The optimization problem is solved by a multi-objective genetic algorithm using a direct crossover. A case study on an aluminum space frame (ASF) of a middle size passenger vehicle is discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/87203/4/Saitou84.pd