Generic “Stick” Model of a Vehicular Structure

The paper describes a method of developing generic “stick” models (beam only finite element models) of vehicle structures. The EAL program is used to create two- and four-door generic models through a capability for specifying geometry by assigning dimensions of a vehicle structure. A description is given for elastic analyses, the steps of sensitivity analyses and the test setup for measuring bending and torsional stiffness of a body-in-white structure. The analysis results are shown to be in good agreement with the test data for the overall bending and torsional stiffness. Sensitivity coefficients of the total strain energy are computed using the forward finite diference scheme.