Optimizing Quality Through Simulation
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To maximize fuel efficiency and performance, vehicles are designed with minimum weight. Savings in part weight can reduce the cost of parts and directly reduces the engine power required for vehicle acceleration. However, reduction of material from structural parts and body panels leads to reduced stiffness and increases the susceptibility of the parts to vibration, which might transmit noise to the vehicle interior or affect driver perception of vehicle quality. These vibrations can occur due to dynamic loads produced by the vehicle aerodynamics. Reduced stiffness can also cause panels to deform under static loading conditions and might lead to air leakage through door and window seals, which creates significant noise transmission to the vehicle interior. Static load conditions can occur due to aerodynamic load distributions under normal driving conditions or under strong crosswind
Vehicle engineering to meet structural requirements while avoiding vibration and panel deformation is challenging because of the unique coupling of structural performance with aerodynamic loading. Typically, testing for this occurs very late in the design process using fully detailed prototypes. Wind tunnel tests can show static loading conditions, but cannot replicate the transient onset conditions found on the road. Only road tests can finally detect some panel vibration failures.