Evolution of Empirical Relationship Between High Level Design Parameters with Performance Criteria of a Ladder Type Chassis Frame

Abstract

The greatest challenge for any automotive company is to come out with a product having a competitive edge that requires acceptable performance but at a lower cost in the shortest possible time. Reducing development time and cost are thus a priority for all the companies to improve their competitive edge. Product optimization methods are ontinuously being improved to reduce the cost of the product and also reduce the development time & effort. This dissertation is aimed at reducing the development time & effort for a ladder type chassis frame.

This dissertation is carried out to obtain relationship between high level design variables having dominating effect and performance criteria of a ladder type chassis frame. The performance criteria selected are those having prime importance in chassis frame design. The chassis frame selected for analysis is a simplified model of actual ladder type chassis frame. Design of Experiments was used to create twelve frame models, within design envelope. The analysis was performed using Lumped Parameter Model (Mathematical Model) and Finite Element Analysis software (OptiStruct, I-DEAS). After getting sufficient correlation, the equations obtained in Lumped Parameter Model (Mathematical Model) were used to perform Weight Optimization of chassis frame within design envelope. The work shows the possibility of reducing effort, time and cost required for chassis frame design in early design stages. This although will not give exact solution but can give a near optimal initial design of chassis frame, thus reducing the effort for optimization during the detailed design phase.