Lightweight design approach of an LFT-metal multi-material vehicle door concept

Abstract

This work presents a new approach to design and validate an economical lightweight multi-material roof-integrated vehicle door concept made of long-fiber thermoplastics (LFT) and metals with the consideration of package constrain, critical static and crash loading cases. A novel “two-ring” door structure is introduced, which consists of a major load-bearing region and a minor load-bearing but highly function-integrated region. This concept design concentrates on using cost-efficient lightweight materials, such as aluminum, LFTs and uni-directional tapes (UD-Tapes), as well as corresponding mass-production methods. Using the topology and parameter optimization along with the load anisotropy analysis, the rib structure on the door concept is optimized and the effective usage of UD-Tapes is guaranteed. In comparison to the steel reference, the final LFT-metal multi-material door concept achieves 20% weight reduction with a comparable or improved mechanical performance.

Characterization of Hot Deformation Behavior and Processing Maps Based on Murty Criterion of SAE8620RH Gear Steel

“…The successful application of SAE8260RH gear steel necessitates adequate core hardenability, favorable carburizing layer hardenability, a superior banded structure, and minimal nonmetallic inclusions [2]. Obviously, a significant amount of investigation has been directed towards the optimization of carburizing and quenching processes, as well as the control of inclusions [3][4][5]. In fact, during the manufacturing process, gear steel undergoes a complex thermal deformation condition to attain a uniform and refined structure.…”