A database framework for industrial vehicle body concept modelling

Nowadays, in automotive industry the prediction of the static and dynamic behavior of a vehicle body is essential already in the initial phases of the design process in order to shorten the Time To Market through the early identification of issues and the application of proper countermeasures. The NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) behavior of a vehicle Finite Element (FE) model is typically analyzed and optimized by using Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) technologies, which require a detailed model, often unavailable in the concept phase of the vehicle design process. The aim of the research presented here is to provide the designer with an efficient methodology that enables the optimization of the NVH behavior of a concept vehicle body through structural modifications. A concept joint modification approach is proposed, based on the idea of building a database of joints, which consists of reduced FE models of structural variants of the original joint. By applying the Waves-Based Substructuring (WBS) technology, the database can be used for the optimal concept design of vehicle bodies. The proposed approach is illustrated through two case-studies, where a simple and an industrial model are analyzed to prove the feasibility of the concept joint database.status: publishe