Computational Aided Design for Generating a Modular, Lightweight Car Concept
📝 Abstract
Developing an appropriate design process for a conceptual model is a stepping stone toward designing car bodies. This paper presents a methodology to design a lightweight and modular space frame chassis for a sedan electric car. The dual phase high strength steel with improved mechanical properties is employed to reduce the weight of the car body. Utilizing the finite element analysis yields two models in order to predict the performance of each component. The first model is a beam structure with a rapid response in structural stiffness simulation. This model is used for performing the static tests including modal frequency, bending stiffens and torsional stiffness evaluation. Whereas the second model, i.e., a shell model, is proposed to illustrate every module’s mechanical behavior as well as its crashworthiness efficiency. In order to perform the crashworthiness analysis, the explicit nonlinear dynamic solver provided by ABAQUS, a commercial finite element software, is used. The results of finite element beam and shell models are in line with the concept design specifications. Implementation of this procedure leads to generate a lightweight and modular concept for an electric car.
💡 Analysis
Developing an appropriate design process for a conceptual model is a stepping stone toward designing car bodies. This paper presents a methodology to design a lightweight and modular space frame chassis for a sedan electric car. The dual phase high strength steel with improved mechanical properties is employed to reduce the weight of the car body. Utilizing the finite element analysis yields two models in order to predict the performance of each component. The first model is a beam structure with a rapid response in structural stiffness simulation. This model is used for performing the static tests including modal frequency, bending stiffens and torsional stiffness evaluation. Whereas the second model, i.e., a shell model, is proposed to illustrate every module’s mechanical behavior as well as its crashworthiness efficiency. In order to perform the crashworthiness analysis, the explicit nonlinear dynamic solver provided by ABAQUS, a commercial finite element software, is used. The results of finite element beam and shell models are in line with the concept design specifications. Implementation of this procedure leads to generate a lightweight and modular concept for an electric car.
📄 Content
Computational Aided Design for Generating a Modular, Lightweight Car Concept
A.Farokhi Nejad1,2 *, M. pourasghar2,3, S.Peirovi2, M.N.Tamin2
1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy.
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia
3 Automatic Control Department, Universitat Polit`ecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract
Developing an appropriate design process for a conceptual model is a stepping stone toward designing car bodies. This paper presents a methodology to design a lightweight and modular space frame chassis for a sedan electric car. The dual phase high strength steel with improved mechanical properties is employed to reduce the weight of the car body. Utilizing the finite element analysis yields two models in order to predict the performance of each component. The first model is a beam structure with a rapid response in structural stiffness simulation. This model is used for performing the static tests including modal frequency, bending stiffens and torsional stiffness evalua- tion. Whereas the second model, i.e., a shell model, is proposed to illustrate every module’s mechanical behavior as well as its crashwor- thiness efficiency. In order to perform the crashworthiness analysis, the explicit nonlinear dynamic solver provided by ABAQUS, a commercial finite element software, is used. The results of finite element beam and shell models are in line with the concept design speci- fications. Implementation of this procedure leads to generate a lightweight and modular concept for an electric car. Keywords: Electric vehicle, Crashworthiness, Lightweight design, Modular concept, Space frame, Structural integrity.
- Introduction
Nowadays, we are facing serious ecological issues among
which global warming and air pollution are of greatest atten-
tion. More than 45% of the fuel consumption in passenger’s
cars is related to the body weight [1]. Reducing the weight
with optimum design shows a great potential for solving this
problem. Some studies conducted in this area show that taking
the sophisticated approach of lightweight structural design can
decrease fuel consumption significantly, leading to improving
the aforementioned global issues [2,3].
Lightweight design is a vital aspect where mass is a critical
design factor. In order to increase the driving comfort, safety
and reducing the fuel consumption, the lightweight approach
enables manufacturers to develop the products functionally
[4,5]. To build a lightweight body car using high strength steel
(HSS) [6,7], aluminum alloys [8] and composite materials
have been proposed for example in [9,10]. However, the cost
of the final component made by special non-steel types of
materials is one of the obstacles that persuade manufacturers
to employ high strength steel instead of the other materials
[11]. Since some parts of body structure have low stress dur-
ing the testing procedure, these parts can be replaced with
lighter or cheaper materials. This approach called multi-mixed
material that it can be used when the mass production is taken
into account [4]. Also, the manufacturing process and forma-
bility of materials are the key points for obtaining the light-
weight structures. In the mass production and especially for
the automotive industry, the forming process inducing for
example work hardening or material orientation offers possi-
bilities to reach lighter components [12,13]. In addition, how-
ever, using optimal design has been considered as an another
option to design a lighter car. Shape, compliance and mass
optimization as well as genetic algorithm and neural network
methods have been used to optimize the performance of car
body and its component [14,15]. However, in some cases the
methods such genetic algorithm and neural network for indus-
trial application were not successful.
Crashworthiness assessment of the body car is a crucial is- sue that the manufacturers are concerned about and in recent years the regulations and consumer tests about the crashwor- thiness efficiency are becoming more challenging. The body structure plays the most important role to absorb the energy of the crash for the passenger cars. Therefore, in order to obtain lightweight vehicle regarding high crashworthiness efficiency, shape optimization was utili
This content is AI-processed based on ArXiv data.