Design of Steering Column Mounting Bracket for Vibration

Nowadays, many automotive companies have been trying to reduce the weight of the cars in order to reduce both environmental problems and manufacturing cost. However, the efforts to increase the vertical mode frequency of a steering column have resulted in increasing weight. This paper presents weight optimization of the structure with respect to vertical mode frequency. In the concept design stage, topology optimization is applied to steering column mounting bracket of the cowl cross member. After the cowl cross member combined with the BIW(Body in White), the DSA(design sensitivity analysis) is performed to minimize optimization variables. Choosing appropriate design variables, the weight optimization is performed to the buck system. As a result, the total weight increased less and target frequency is satisfied.