Vehicle Crash and Steering Column Frequency Simulation of an Aluminum Instrument Panel Structure General Motors Company

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Boundy, Boundy, author.

Contributor:

Dandekar, Bhushan

Vican, Rudy

Conference Name:

SAE 2011 World Congress & Exhibition (2011-04-12 : Detroit, Michigan, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2011

Summary:

Recent changes to the U.S. CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)requirements have caused increased focus on alternative vehiclecomponent designs that offer mass savings while maintaining overallvehicle design and performance targets. The instrument panelcomponents comprise approximately 6% of the total vehicle interiormass and are thus a key component of interest in mass optimizationefforts. Typically, instrument panel structures are constructed oflow carbon tubular steel cross car members with welded stampedsteel component brackets. In some cases, instrument panelstructures have incorporated high strength low alloy (HSLA) steelsto reduce mass by reducing gage. In this study, aluminum low massinstrument panel structure concept designs are developed.This paper illustrates the differences between a HSLA steelsolution and four different aluminum instrument panel structuredesigns. The aluminum instrument panel structures are designoptimized using computer-aided engineering (CAE) software toachieve specific performance requirements. Beam stiffness, EuroNCAP (European New Car Assessment Program) load case criteriameasurements and steering column vibration measured by firstresponse frequency modes in the vertical direction are conductedand evaluated.The aluminum concept designs contain similar cross sections andpackaging space compared to the HSLA steel design. The HSLA steeland aluminum designs display approximately the same verticalsteering column resonant frequencies. However, the HSLA steeldesign and only one of the aluminum concept designs achieved lowintrusion performance for Euro NCAP load cases. Analyzed as astandalone beam, the stiffness of the aluminum cross car beam isthree times less than the HSLA steel beam. However, analyzed at acomplete instrument panel structure to vehicle system level, thecontribution of the body side attachment brackets and the floor pantunnel braces enhance the overall performance and stiffness of thealuminum instrument panel structure. Thus, each design conceptperforms equally but the aluminum design concept is 42% lighterthan the HSLA steel design

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2011-01-0765

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license