Durability Analysis of Pickup Trucks Using Non-Linear FEA

One of the difficulties in predicting the structural behavior of vehicles such as the full size pickup trucks is the non-linearities involved during the course of the durability events. The current practice in durability and fatigue life prediction of vehicles is to conduct fatigue analysis on the structure using the measured road loads and estimate the fatigue incurred using the in-house and commercially available programs.

In this paper the authors attempt to seek a different solution to the durability problem by conducting an upfront non-linear analysis. The results are then compared with the prediction by the fatigue life program in addition to the durability test results obtained on the early prototypes.

To conduct the non-linear analysis ABAQUS FEA program is chosen for this investigation and for the linear analysis MSC/NASTRAN is utilized. Subsequently in-house fatigue program is used to predict the fatigue incurred. It has been observed that the non-linear analysis of full size pickup trucks can show the levels of plastic strains and the post yield behavior of the potential areas that are susceptible to fatigue. This procedure can be used in conjunction with the existing fatigue analysis as a predictive tool to support the design before the prototypes are built.