• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.175-180
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• 2008

Due to the global environment problems and the consumer's need for higher vehicle performance, it becomes very important for the global car makers to reduce vehicle weight. To reduce vehicle weight, many car makers have tried to use lightweight materials, for example, aluminum, magnesium, and plastics, for the vehicle structures and components. Especially, the ASF(aluminum space frame) is known for the excellent concept of the vehicle to satisfy structural rigidity, safety performance and weight reduction. In this research, the design of experiments and the multi-disciplinary optimization technique were utilized to meet the weight and structural rigidity target of the ASF. For the structural performance of the ASF, the locations and the size of aluminum extruded frames, aluminum cast nodes, and the aluminum sheets were optimized. As a result, the optimization design procedure has been set up to meet both structural and weight target of the ASF, and the assembled ASF showed good structural performance and weight reduction.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.635-641
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• 2005

This paper presents an ASF (Aluminum Space Frame) BIW (Body in White) optimal design, which minimizes weight and satisfies multidisciplinary constraints such as static stiffness, vibration characteristics, low-/high-speed crash, and occupant safety. As only one cycle CPU time for all the analyses is 12 hours, the ASF design having 11-design variable is a large scaled problem. In this study, ISCD-II and conservative least square fitting method were used for efficient RSM modeling. Likewise, the ALM method was used to solve the approximate optimization problem. The approximate optimum was sequentially added to remodel the RSM. The proposed optimization method uses only 20 analyses to solve the 11-design variable problem. Moreover, the optimal design can achieve $15.6\%$ weight reduction while satisfying all the multidisciplinary design constraints.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.216-233
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• 2002

Due to the environmental problems of fuel consumption and vehicle emission, etc., automotive makers are trying to reduce the weight of vehicles. The most effective way to reduce a vehicle weight is to use lighter materials, such as aluminum and plastics. Aluminum Intensive Vehicle(AIV) has many advantages in the aspects of weight reduction, body stiffness and model change. So, most of automotive manufacturers are attempting to develop AIV using Aluminum Space Frame(ASF). The weight of AIV can be generally reduced to about 30% than that of conventional steel vehicle without the loss of impact energy absorbing capability. And the body stiffness of AIV is higher than that of conventional steel monocoque body. In this study, Aluminum Intensive Vehicle is developed and analyzed on the basis of steel monocoque body. The energy absorbing characteristics of aluminum extrusion components are investigated from the test and simulation results. The crush and crash characteristics of AIV based on the FMVSS 208 regulations are evaluated in comparison with steel monocoque. Using these results, the design concepts of the effective energy absorbing members and the design guide line to improve crashworthiness for AIV are suggested.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2006

This paper presents an ASF (Aluminum Space Frame) BIW optimal design, which minimizes the weight and satisfies multi-disciplinary constraints such as the static stiffness, vibration characteristics, low-speed crash, high-speed crash and occupant protection. As only one cycle CPU time for all the analyses is 12 hours, the ASF design having 11-design variable is a large scaled problem. In this study, ISCD-II and conservative least square fitting method is used for efficient RSM modeling. Then, ALM method is used to solve the approximate optimization problem. The approximate optimum is sequentially added to remodel the RSM. The proposed optimization method used only 20 analyses to solve the 11-design variable design problem. Also, the optimal design can reduce the] $15\%$ of total weight while satisfying all of the multi-disciplinary design constraints.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.68-78
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• 2003

Recently, low speed vehicle (LSV) is beginning to appear for various usages. The body of the LSV is usually made of the aluminum space frame (ASF) type rather than the monocoque or unitary construction type. A pa.1 of the reason is that it is easier to reduce mass efficiently while the required stiffness and strength are maintained. A design flow for LSV is proposed. Design specifications for structural performances of LSV do not exist yet. Therefore, they are defined through a comparative study with general passenger automobiles. An optimization problem is formulated by the defined specifications. At first, one pillar which has an important role in structural performances is selected and the reinforcements of the pillar are determined from topology optimization to maximize the stiffness. At second, the thicknesses of cross sections are determined to minimize the mass of the body while design specifications are satisfied. The optimum solution is compared with an existing design. The optimization process has been performed using a commercial optimization software system, GENESIS 7.0.