Stiffness and Thermal Analysis of Doubly Curve Sandwich Panel for an Automobile Application

Abstract

Automotive industry is on the verge of development. More and more comforts are be- ing incorporated in a vehicle. On other hand customers have stringent demand of fuel economy, high performance at low cost. In order to have high fuel economy the auto- motive manufacturers are induced to reduce weight. In this project car body panel is selected as a target weight reduction component. This can be achieved either using high strength low weight material or by using low weight composite sandwich panel. Aluminum composite (Aluminum skin, polyethylene core and epoxy resin) material being light and strong, it is thought as an alternative material. By using this doubly curve sandwich panel,required sti ness can be achieved with reduced thickness and weight. FEA software(ANSYS) is used for numeric sti ness and thermal analysis of the sample panel. 25% Weight reduction can be achieved for the same sti ness and the value of heat flux in filtration in aluminum panel is 47.73% more as compare to sandwich panel.