Advanced concept modelling method for automotive structural optimization

NVH (Noise Vibration and Harshness) and crashworthiness are highly significant issues related to lightweighting of vehicle bodies. It is recommended to analyse vehicle NVH issues in early design phases in order to optimize vehicle design performance. The early design phase provides functional requirements and specified weight constraints to the designer for geometry optimization. Using available CAD (Computer Aided Design) data, reduced modelling of vehicle structure can be done to achieve NVH performance. The paper demonstrates and verifies an approach to reduced modelling with structural modal and FE (Finite Element) analysis. It focuses on beam selection techniques for reduced modelling and accuracy achieved in NVH performance prediction by appropriate beam cross-section selection.