Rating Potential Surface Distortions during Early Surface Development of a Vehicle Using FEA Simulation

In this period of hyper competition, time to market is a key success component. All development cycles are being compressed and the surface development process is no exception. Therefore, it has become crucial to predict and rank the myriad of potential surface distortions that can occur on a complex Class-1 surface.

The paper presents an approach in the context of Ford's new Global Development System. The authors compare the merit of several FEA based solutions; discuss their capabilities to identify the defect.