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Lightweight Bus Body Design and Optimization for Rollover Crashworthiness

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Abstract

Lightweight design of bus body can improve energy consumption and operating cost. Nonetheless, design for strength and crashworthiness of bus superstructure is vital to occupant safety during accidents. This work proposes a methodology to design an effective lightweight frame layout and member sections of bus superstructure under requirements of bending stiffness, torsion stiffness, and rollover safety conforming to ECE-R66 based on optimization techniques. The bus configuration is firstly resolved by iterative topology optimizations with the objective function based on the structural weight and compliance subjected to the maximum displacement constraints for each load case. Topology optimization offers a preliminary design possessing the required stiffness while its structural weight is decreased by 2.5 % from the baseline model. Gauge optimization is then applied to adapt the thicknesses of the frame cross-sections. Due to high computational cost of dynamic rollover test, the correlation between nonlinear rollover test and linear quasi-static test with an adjusted deformation limit is proposed to accelerate the process. The most significant design parameter to rollover safety is shown to be the roof structure. Weight distribution and energy absorption of structural components for different models are examined and discussed as the basis to good practice in design for safety.

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Abbreviations

d :

length of axle shaft

E :

elasticity matrix

E 0 :

material properties of given isotropic material

K B :

bending stiffness value

K e :

penalized element stiffness matrix

K e 0 :

real element stiffness matrix

K T :

torsion stiffness value

L :

length of bus structure

M :

mass of bus structure

p :

penalization factor

T :

applied torque

u :

displacement vector corresponding to bending stiffness requirement

V :

total volume of each design part

{v}:

displacement vector corresponding to quasi-static load test requirement

W :

weight function of bus structure

x i :

element density of the ith design variable

X :

vector of design variable

z 1 :

deflection on right end of shaft axle

z 2 :

deflection on left end of shaft axle

{z}:

displacement vector corresponding to torsion stiffness requirement

ω n :

desired bending natural frequency

ρ :

element density vector

ρ e :

element density

Ω :

design domain

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Acknowledgement

Financial support from Thailand Research Fund (TRF) under Research and Researchers for Industries project with contract number MSD57I0030 is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Functional Control Systems, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Saitama, 337-8570, Japan

    Suphanut Kongwat

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand

    Pattaramon Jongpradist

  3. Department of Machinery and Control Systems, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Saitama, 337-8570, Japan

    Hiroshi Hasegawa

Authors
  1. Suphanut Kongwat
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  2. Pattaramon Jongpradist
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  3. Hiroshi Hasegawa
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Correspondence to Pattaramon Jongpradist.

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Kongwat, S., Jongpradist, P. & Hasegawa, H. Lightweight Bus Body Design and Optimization for Rollover Crashworthiness. Int.J Automot. Technol. 21, 981–991 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-020-0093-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12239-020-0093-9

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