Robust Design Analysis of a Heavy-Duty Truck Radiator

Truck manufacturers across the globe are developing new design concepts to tackle the higher raw material cost, increased weight, and process variations. Robust design simulations are performed to figure out reliable and cost-effective designs insensitive to the variations in geometric, shape, and material properties. A new robust design approach is evaluated along with traditional nominal design analysis. A case study of a heavy-duty truck radiator is presented using the new robust design approach. As a first step, a finite element (FE) model of the radiator is modeled and nominal finite element analysis (FEA) of deformation and baseline stress responses are calculated. Random simulation is performed to capture the uncertainty and design variations due to the geometric, material, and shape. Random design generators such as Monte Carlo method are deployed, and they populate around 250 random designs for each of the design variables. Output responses are obtained for all these design points and postprocessed using probabilistic tools. A cost-effective robust design of a radiator is proposed and weight analysis is also performed.