Assessment of Automotive Structure Life Expectancy by Means of Integration of CAE Technology and Experimental Process

This paper presents a new methodology, based on large application of CAE tools, intending to evaluate the static and dynamic behavior of automotive vehicle bodies; therefore the definition of the operational safe life of these bodies.

The structural behavior verification is performed up on computer simulation and FEA, using as dynamic load case, the internal loads transmited to the body, by the suspension system.

The use of this methodology became easy to know the detailed structural behavior of each element in the various joints that compound the structure; permiting rapid action on project level to eliminate possibles problems and the synthesis of structure existents, without long and expensive experimental tests.