Search Results

The Multi Material Lightweight Vehicle (MMLV) developed by Magna International and Ford Motor Company is a result of a US Department of Energy (DOE) project DE-EE0005574. The project demonstrates the lightweighting potential of a five passenger sedan, while achieving frontal crash test performance comparable to the baseline vehicle. Prototype vehicles were manufactured and limited full vehicle testing was conducted. The Mach-I vehicle design, comprised of commercially available materials and production processes, achieved a 364 kg (23.5%) full vehicle mass reduction, enabling the application of a 1.0 liter three-cylinder engine, leading to the potential for reduced environmental impact and improved fuel economy.

This paper describes (1) the findings from the implementation of a component test methodology for body, engine and transmission mounts [1, 2 and 3], and (2) the associated CAE model development and mount design robustness enhancement. A series of component tests on light truck body, engine and transmission mounts have been conducted to not only obtain their characteristics as inputs for crashworthiness analysis, but also drive mount design direction for frontal impacts.

This paper describes (1) the development of a component test methodology for testing a cooling module including radiator, condenser and trans. cooler, and (2) the associated CAE model development. A series of light truck/SUV cooling module component tests were conducted to obtain their characteristics as inputs for frontal impact and sensor modeling development. First, the cooling module component CAE sub-model was developed using soft springs along with fine-mesh sheet metal shell elements. Second, simulated sub-model results were correlated fairly well with the test data. Third, this component CAE sub-model was then incorporated into a full vehicle CAE model that was used for frontal impact (NCAP) and sensor development. Results indicated that the proposed test method for cooling module components provided consistent data and the results from cooling module sub-model can be incorporated into the full vehicle CAE model for improving the quality and accuracy of CAE models.