In developing a lightweight vehicle, one possible hypothesis is to embody an ideal structure by using computer simulation and plastic model tests. Computer simulation is performed to determine the stiffness distribution of structural members. Plastic model test is performed to obtain the detailed structure considering production process determined by computer simulation. In plastic model test, different sheet thickness ratios, caused by difficulty in adjusting the plastic sheet thickness to the prototype design, affect the accuracy of the test results. Therefore a method by introducing corrected scale factors for a thin shell structure should be developed from the beam bending theory for thin structures and the shell bending theory for flatplates. These factors prove that the sheet thickness in a plastic scale model could be selected differently from the prototpye design. This paper presents corrected scale factors to improve the accuracy of plastic model tests. Then, the application of these plastic model tests and computer simulation to weight reduction of vehicle body structure is presented.
Application of a plastic model test and CAE to weight reduction of vehicle body structure
Anwendung eines Tests mit Kunststoffmodell und der rechnergestützten Konstruktionstechnik zur Gewichtsverminderung von Fahrzeugkarosserien
1993
8 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 9 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Application of a plastic model test and CAE to weight reduction of vehicle body structure
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