Browse Topic: Body structures
Advanced motion control technologies are essential to modern aerospace design, supporting a wide range of safety-critical and comfort-driven applications. In aerospace, motion control components such as gas springs, actuators, and dampers are integral to nearly every commercial aircraft, rocket, satellite, and space vehicle. These critical elements support flight safety and transport functions, from the dependable deployment of landing gear and cargo doors to the smooth, ergonomic operation of seating for pilots and passengers.
This SAE Recommended Practice describes the test procedures for conducting quasi-static cab roof strength tests for heavy-truck applications. Its purpose is to establish recommended test procedures that will standardize the procedure for heavy trucks. Descriptions of the test setup, test instrumentation, photographic/video coverage, and test fixtures are included.
This SAE Information Report applies to structural integrity, performance, drivability, and serviceability of personally licensed vehicles not exceeding 10000 pounds GVWR such as sedans, crossovers, SUVs, MPVs, light trucks, and van-type vehicles that are powered by gas and alternative fuel such as electric, plug-in hybrid, or hybrid technologies. It provides engineering direction to vehicle modifiers in a manner that does not limit innovation, and it specifies procedures for preparing vehicles to enhance safety during vehicle modifications. It further provides guidance and recommendations for the minimum acceptable design requirements and performance criteria on general and specific structural modifications, thereby allowing consumers and third-party payers the ability to obtain and purchase equipment that meets or exceeds the performance and safety of the OEM production vehicle.
Volvo Trucks North America launches the all-new VNR with standard D13 VGT engine and announces an upcoming CARB- 24 Omnibus compliant engine variant. When Volvo Trucks revealed its all-new VNR regional haul truck in March 2025, it also marked the launch of something new under the hood: the Volvo D13 VGT (variable geometry turbo) engine. The new D13 VGT engine will be standard in the VNR and optional for the VNL day cab. The D13 VGT engine builds on improvements launched with the D13 Turbo Compound engine, which is standard on the new VNL (www.sae.org/news/2024/02/volvo-vnl-launch) that commenced commercial production at the New River Valley assembly plant in Dublin, Virginia, in October 2024.
Mechanical light detection and ranging (LiDAR) units utilize spinning lasers to scan surrounding areas to enable limited autonomous driving. The motors within the LiDAR modules create vibration that can propagate through the vehicle frame and become unwanted noise in the cabin of a vehicle. Decoupling the module from the body of the vehicle with highly damped elastomers can reduce the acoustic noise in the cabin and improve the driving experience. Damped elastomers work by absorbing the vibrational energy and dispelling it as low-grade heat. By creating a unique test method to model the behavior of the elastomers, a predictable pattern of the damping ratio yielded insight into the performance of the elastomer throughout the operating temperature range of the LiDAR module. The test method also provides an objective analysis of elastomer durability when exposed to extreme temperatures and loading conditions for extended periods of time. Confidence in elastomer behavior and life span was
Wind noise is one of the largest sources to interior noise of modern vehicles. This noise is encountered when driving on roads and freeways from medium speed and generates considerable fatigue for passengers on long journeys. Aero-acoustic noise is the result of turbulent and acoustic pressure fluctuations created within the flow. They are transmitted to the passenger compartment via the vibro-acoustic excitation of vehicle surfaces and underbody cavities. Generally, this is the dominant flow-induced source at low frequencies. The transmission mechanism through the vehicle floor and underbody is a complex phenomenon as the paths to the cavity can be both airborne and structure-borne. This study is focused on the simulation of the floor contribution to wind noise of two types of vehicles (SUV and Sports car), whose underbody structure are largely different. Aero-Vibro-acoustic simulations are performed to identify the transmission mechanism of the underbody wind noise and contribution
This study focuses on the numerical analysis of weather-strip contact sealing performance with a variable cross-sectional design, addressing both static and dynamic behaviors, including the critical issue of stick-slip phenomena. By employing finite element modeling (FEM), the research simulates contact pressures and deformations under varying compression loads, DCE (Door Closing Efforts) requirements, typical in automotive applications. The analysis evaluates how changes in the cross-sectional shape of the weather-strip affect its ability to maintain a consistent sealing performance, especially under dynamic vehicle operations. The study also delves into stick-slip behavior, a known cause of noise and vibration issues, particularly improper/ loosened door-seal contact during dynamic driving condition. This study identifies key parameters influencing stick-slip events, such as friction coefficients, material stiffness, surface interactions, sliding velocity, wet/dry condition
A good Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) environment in a vehicle plays an important role in attracting a large customer base in the automotive market. Hence, NVH has been given significant priority while considering automotive design. NVH performance is monitored using simulations early during the design phase and testing in later prototype stages in the automotive industry. Meeting NVH performance targets possesses a greater risk related to design modifications in addition to the cost and time associated with the development process. Hence, a more enhanced and matured design process involves Design Point Analysis (DPA), which is essentially a decision-making process in which analytical tools derived from basic sciences, mathematics, statistics, and engineering fundamentals are used to develop a product model that better fulfills the predefined requirement. This paper shows the systematic approach of conducting a Design Point Analysis-level NVH study to evaluate the acoustic
Design verification and quality control of automotive components require the analysis of the source location of ultra-short sound events, for instance the engaging event of an electromechanical clutch or the clicking noise of the aluminium frame of a passenger car seat under vibration. State-of-the-art acoustic cameras allow for a frame rate of about 100 acoustic images per second. Considering that most of the sound events introduced above can be far less than 10ms, an acoustic image generated at this rate resembles an hard-to-interpret overlay of multiple sources on the structure under test along with reflections from the surrounding test environment. This contribution introduces a novel method for visualizing impulse-like sound emissions from automotive components at 10x the frame rate of traditional acoustic cameras. A time resolution of less than 1ms eventually allows for the true localization of the initial and subsequent sound events as well as a clear separation of direct from
Traditional silicon-based solar cells are completely opaque, which works for solar farms and roofs but would defeat the purpose of windows. However, organic solar cells, in which the light absorber is a kind of plastic, can be transparent.
The weave mode of a motorcycle is known to be affected by the flexibility of the vehicle frame. The weave mode has been shown to be more unstable in the 10-DOF model than in the 4-DOF model. However, it is not clear why the weave mode would be unstable, given the six different frame flexibilities. In this study, the authors analyzed the stability of the weave mode in a 4-DOF model when the same was integrated with two types of frame flexibilities. In the vehicle specifications used in the analysis, the combination of the bending flexibility of the front forks and the torsional flexibility of the main frame destabilizes the weave mode. The analysis results show that the phase delay of the front tire lateral force is caused by the phase delay of the steering angle. The combined bending flexibility of the front forks and the torsional flexibility of the main frame results in a large phase lag in the steering angle.
Physical testing is required to assess multiple vehicles in different conditions, specially to validate those related to regulations. The acoustic evaluations have difficulties and limitations in physical test; cost and time represent important considerations every time. Additionally, the physical validation happens once a prototype has been built, this takes place in a later phase of the development. Sound pressure is measured to validate different requirements in a vehicle, horn sound is one of these and it is related to a regulation of united nations (ECE28). Currently the validation happens in physical test only and the results vary depending on the location of the horn inside the front end of every vehicle. [7] In this article, the work for approaching a virtual validation method through CAE is presented with the intention to get efficiency earlier in product development process.
Door sunshade in a vehicle has proven to be very comfortable and luxurious feature to the customers. Luxury vehicles provide power sunshade which is electrically operated with the activation of a switch, whereas cost conscious vehicles provide manual sunshade which requires manual coiling and uncoiling. This study is to develop a door panel structure that can accommodate both the manual sunshade and power sunshade, thereby serving both cost conscious as well as luxury seeking customers. Manual sunshade consists only of cassette, pull bar, spindle mechanism and hooks whereas the power sunshade consists of cassette, pull bar, spindle mechanism, flap mechanism, bowden cable mechanism, actuator and motor. Due to this difference in package, it becomes difficult to accommodate both variants of sunshade into the same body system. However, this study helps in developing a common body structure by ways of effective packaging, modifying the cable and actuator mechanism and critical packaging of
The proliferation of the electric vehicle (EVs) in the US market led to an increase in the average vehicle weight due to the assembly of the larger high-voltage (HV) batteries. To comply with this weight increase and to meet stringent US regulations and Consumer Ratings requirements, Vehicle front-end rigidity (stiffness) has increased substantially. This increased stiffness in the larger vehicles (Large EV pickups/SUVs) may have a significant impact during collision with smaller vehicles. To address this issue, it is necessary to consider adopting a vehicle compatibility test like Euro NCAP MPDB (European New Car Assessment Program Moving Progressive Deformable Barrier) for the North American market as well. This study examines the influence of mass across vehicle classes and compares the structural variations for each impact class. The Euro NCAP MPDB (European New Car Assessment Program Moving Progressive Deformable Barrier) protocol referenced for this analysis. Our evaluation
The pre-validation process for door trim noise has gained increasing importance as noise standards have become more stringent with the transition to electric vehicles. Currently, the validation process employs squeak and rattle director simulations to evaluate noise based on relative displacement values. However, this approach is time-intensive. To address this limitation, we have improved process efficiency by developing a database of relative displacement values derived from the cross-sectional and structural characteristics of matching parts. This advancement enables noise pre-validation using only cross-sectional and structural information.
This paper presents a new regression model-based method for accurate predictions of stiffness of different glass laminate constructions with a point-load bending test setup. Numerical FEA models have been developed and validated with experimental data, then used to provide training data required for the statistical model. The multi-variable regression method considered six input variables of total glass thickness, thickness ratio of glass plies as well as high-order terms. Highly asymmetrical, hybrid laminates combining a relatively thick soda-lime glass (SLG) ply joined with a relatively thin Corning® Gorilla® Glass (GG) ply were analyzed and compared to standard symmetrical SLG-SLG constructions or a monolithic SLG with the same total glass thickness. Both stiffness of the asymmetrical laminates and the improvement percentage over the standard symmetrical design can be predicted through the model with high precision.
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