PARAMETRIC MODAL STUDY AND OPTIMIZATION OF THE FLOOR PAN OF A B-SEGMENT AUTOMOTIVE USING A HYBRID METHOD OF TAGUCHI AND A NEWLY DEVELOPED MCDM MODEL

Abstract

THE FLOOR PAN IS AN IMPORTANT COMPONENT THAT CONNECTS THE FRONT AND REAR SEGMENTS OF THE AUTOMOTIVE UNDERBODY STRUCTURE. GLOBAL STIFFNESS AND NVH CHARACTERISTICS OF BIW ARE HIGHLY DEPENDENT TO SHAPE, THICKNESS AND MASS OF THE BODY PANELS AND COULD BE EVALUATED BY MODAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE PANELS. THE FEELING OF SOLIDNESS AND COMFORT OF PASSENGERS IN AN AUTOMOTIVE IS ALSO DEPENDENT TO THE MODAL BEHAVIOR OF THE UNDERBODY COMPONENTS AS WELL AS THE FLOOR PAN. ON THE OTHER HAND, IT IS DESIRED TO REDUCE THE TOTAL MASS OF THE FLOOR PAN, IN ORDER TO HAVE A LIGHTER VEHICLE WITH BETTER FUEL ECONOMY AND EMISSION STANDARDS. IN THIS PAPER, THE EFFECT OF GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS ON NATURAL FREQUENCY AND TOTAL MASS OF THE FLOOR PAN OF A CONVENTIONAL B-SEGMENT AUTOMOTIVE BODY IS INVESTIGATED USING FINITE ELEMENT SIMULATION. THE FINITE ELEMENT MODEL IS VERIFIED USING AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST ON THE FLOOR PAN. TAGUCHI L_16 ORTHOGONAL ARRAY IS USED TO DESIGN THE NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS. SUBSEQUENTLY, S/N RATIO ANALYSIS IS PERFORMED TO EVALUATE THE EFFECT OF EACH DESIGN VARIABLE ON THE OUTPUT FUNCTIONS. THE PANEL’S THICKNESS IS DETERMINED TO HAVE THE MOST CONTRIBUTION IN AFFECTING THE NATURAL FREQUENCY AND WEIGHT USING ANALYSIS OF VARIANCE (ANOVA). THE BEST COMBINATION OF GEOMETRICAL VARIABLES WHICH LEADS TO THE TRADE-OFF RESULTS IS THEN FIGURED OUT BY A NEW MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING (MCDM) METHOD DEVELOPED IN THIS STUDY. ACCURACY OF THIS METHOD IS VERIFIED BY COMPARING THE TRADE-OFF RESULTS WITH TOPSIS, AS A CONVENTIONAL MCDM METHOD.