AUTOMOTIVE FRAME OPTIMIZATION

This work consists in obtaining an optimized chassis design for an off-road vehicle with the appropriate dynamic and structural behavior, taking into account the aspects relative to the economical viability of an initial small scale production. The methodology basically consists in modeling a chassis used in a commercial off-road vehicle using as tool a commercial software based on the finite elements method (FEM). It is worth to point out that the effectiveness of FEM associated to the project of structures is tied to the way it is used and to the expectations of whom uses it. All users of this kind of analysis tool should have in mind the capacities and limitations of the method in order to create their expectations in a correct way. The computational models were built using approaches that take into account different types of elements (shell and beam). A series of tests were conducted with the intention of obtaining information for modeling and validation. The validated computational models allowed the optimization of the structure seeking for higher torsion stiffness and maintenance of the total structure mass.