During the timeframe from 2012 - 2020 mass based fuel consumption and CO2 limits will be applied to all new vehicles. The weight reduction targets for the body, closures and other structural components in the vehicle can be accomplished by a combination of design optimization, material substitution, and de-contenting. The current vehicle development strategy is focused on designing lighter and cost competitive new vehicles.
EDAG Inc. has carried out lightweight design studies (funded by EPA and in collaboration with FEV) on some current production vehicles. These studies included the mandate that the resulting vehicles should meet and/or exceed the regulatory crash safety and current NVH performance requirements.
Combined with sub-system level optimization, Multi-Discipline-Optimization (MDO) automation was carried out with seven performance and one cost constraints. The sub-system level optimization was intended for meeting sub-system performance targets while reducing weight of the sub-system itself. The sub set of feasible designs of each sub-system was included in the full vehicle MDO. The optimization resulted in 14-28% weight reduced vehicle structures with a low cost impact. This paper outlines different strategies and stages of full vehicle lightweight design optimization including collaborative approach of sub-system, full vehicle, and manual and automated schemes of optimization.