This presentation was made at the 2019 NAFEMS World Congress in Quebec Canada

Resource Abstract

Product development in the automotive industry becomes increasingly competitive making optimization, at early stages of the design process, essential. Concept or simplified models are used at these stages to extract fast results and help the design team on decision-making.



However, a common problem in the concept design and early stage optimization is the transfer of the results to the real world and more accurate models. This action is not only a time-consuming operation, but it can lead to inaccurate results due to over-simplified concept models.



In this paper, an innovative method is introduced where detailed Finite Element models are initially simplified in a beam-panel model assembly through an automated process. Beam Cross section Optimization (SOL200, Parametric or Design of Experiments (Doe) study) takes place on the simplified model drastically reducing the optimization time. Finally, the optimum solution is automatically applied on the detailed model using mesh morphing methods, producing an updated detailed model that is used in order to verify the analysis accuracy.



In this process, several element types and, properties, including new element formulations, are tested to accurately simulate the structure, the beam junctions, and beam to panel connections of the simplified model. Model reduction techniques are also applied during the creation of the simplified model, further improving optimization time.



Simplified models of various configurations are optimized, and the resulting updated models are compared. The comparison results for selected load cases of a BiW model are presented.