Abstract
This paper presents the pillar section optimization technique considering the reliability of the vehicle body structure consisted of complicated thin-walled panels. The response surface method is utilized to obtain the response surface models that describe the approximate performance functions representing the system characteristics on the section properties of the pillar and on the mass and the natural frequencies of the vehicle B.I.W. The reliability-based design optimization on the pillar sections Is performed and compared with the conventional deterministic optimization. The FORM is applied for the reliability analysis of the vehicle body structure. The developed optimization system is applied to the pillar section design considering the fundamental natural frequencies of passenger car body structure. By applying the proposed RBDO technique, it can be possible to optimize the pillar sections considering the reliability that engineers require.