A combined optimisation of automotive body joints 2003-01-2797

A practical application of tools to reduce time and cost of an automotive body optimisation is presented. This study combines the use of a topology optimisation SW with the use of a parametric FEM SW. The topology optimisation enables to identify the optimal distribution of material in each joint of a body to reduce the weight without changing the values of global body stiffness. The parametric FEM enables to quickly choose the best joint architecture among all the technologically feasible solutions that are similar to the optimal distribution of material obtained by the topology optimisation. This methodology, applied to all the principal joints of a Fiat car body, has reduced the structural optimisation time of 20% even though the number of people employed was 40% less whit respect to other similar optimisations.