Cross-sectional shape design of automobile structure considering rigidity and driver's field of view

• Published in: Advances in engineering software (1992) Vol. 115; pp. 161 - 167
• Main Authors: Zuo, Wenjie, Lu, Yayun, Zhao, Xing, Bai, Jiantao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-01-2018
• Subjects: Automobile frame; Conceptual design; Driver's field of view; Obstruction angle; Sectional shape; Obstruction angle; Automobile frame; Driver's field of view; Conceptual design; Sectional shape
• ISSN: 0965-9978
• DOI: 10.1016/j.advengsoft.2017.09.006

•Cross-sectional rigidity and driver's field of view are both considered to design automobile A-pillar structure.•Torsional moment of inertia for five types of cross-sectional cells is entirely formulated.•Calculation of obstruction angle is innovatively expressed as a nonlinear optimization problem.•CarFrame engineering software is developed to guide the conceptual design of automobile structure.
Thin-walled beam structure can be used to efficiently predict the performances of automobile frame for conceptual design. However, it is an open issue to acquire an accurate cross-sectional shape of A-pillar structure considering both rigidity and driver's field of view (DFOV). This paper proposes an approach to calculate the cross-sectional rigidity and DFOV. Firstly, formulations of cross-sectional properties, including open, single-cell, double-cell, three-cell, four-cell section, are summarized. Secondly, the obstruction angle is introduced to describe DFOV, which is acquired by a nonlinear optimization model. Finally, a A-pillar example of Toyota RAV4, solved by the developed software – CarFrame, proves that the proposed method can be completely applied at the conceptual design of the automobile structure.