DESIGN FOR BODY BENDING

 Body bending strength requirement

 Body bending stiffness requirement

 Internal loads during global bending

 Analysis of body bending stiffness

 Principles of good joint design

 BODY BENDING STRENGTH
REQUIREMENT
 The most basic structure requirement is to locate and retain

the vehicle subsystems in the correct positions -> powertrain,

occupants, suspension, etc.

 The vehicle will be idealized as a beam in the side view.

 The strength requirement for the structure is to react the shear

and bending moments generated by the applied loads without

failure.
BODY BENDING
 BODY BENDING
 There are more severe bending conditions than static weight loading:
– Dynamic loading (inertia loads of the subsystems) => dynamic
acceleration factor

– Jacking or towing => one support point is moved to an end of the vehicle

 Envelop of maximum bending moments -> the body structure must

react them without excessive permanent deformation
 H POINT BENDING TEST
 The body is supported at the suspension points and loaded by one or
two loads at the seating position (H point load).

 Varying the magnitude of the H point loads we approximate the

envelope of maximum moments => bending strength requirement for
the vehicle.
 H POINT BENDING TEST
 H point bending test:
– Body supported at the suspension attachments

– Loads applied in increments through a fixture loading the seat attachment points

– Vertical deflection measurements are taken along the longitudinal structural

elements

– For each load increment, the maximum deflection along the length is plotted on a
load-deflection curve

– Maximum load is increased in load-unload cycles to determine at what load there

remains a permanent deformation of the structure, affecting vehicle performance

– This load Fs is the measured bending strength for the body -> must be compared
to the bending strength requirement
H POINT BENDING TEST
 BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
 From the H point bending test we can measure bending stiffness -> slope of the load-
deflection curve in the linear region

 Vehicle solidness as the vehicle drives over road irregularities -> subjective =>
correlated to engineering parameters -> body vibration resonance (one of the more
significant)

 Body structure acts like a vibrating beam with free end conditions.

 We concentrate on the lowest frequency of primary bending.

 Customer testing in ride mules (bending resonant frequency could be varied) => to
achieve the feeling of solidness desirable range for vehicle bending frequency is 22-25
Hz -> relatively free from major exciting forces and humans are less sensitive to
vibration

 A high bending stiffness is also significant in reducing deformations which cause

squeaks and rattles during normal use.
BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
 BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
 We can use the 22-25 Hz target for the vehicle bending frequency to

establish a body bending stiffness target.

 The primary bending frequency of a uniform beam is:

22.4 EI g 3 EI

n    22.4  L 2

L2 w M

where: w = weight per unit length

M = total mass = w x L / g
ωn = bending resonant frequency
L = beam length
E x I = section bending stiffness
 BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
 Considering the same beam but loaded with a single static load at its

center span l, the stiffness of such a beam is:

48  E  I K l3
K 3
 E  I 
l 48

where: l = wheelbase
M = rigidly mounted mass
K = required bending stiffness
 BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
 Eliminating ExI from previous equations, we have a relationship

between bending resonant frequency and static bending stiffness:

3
22.4  l  2 K
n    
48  L  M

where: l = wheelbase
L = overall length
M = rigidly mounted mass
K = required bending stiffness of the body
ωn = desired bending resonant frequency for the vehicle
 BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
 Given a target for vehicle bending frequency ωn, the lengths l and L

and the rigidly mounted mass M we can identify the required H point

bending stiffness.

 For preliminary design: M = 0.4 to 0.6 the vehicle curb mass

BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
BODY BENDING STIFFNESS
REQUIREMENT
BODY BENDING REQUIREMENTS
 INTERNAL LOADS DURING GLOBAL
BENDING
 Objective: understand how the global body requirements flow down

to loads on structure elements.

 Idealized body as a set of structural surfaces and bar elements.

 The magnitude of the applied load F represents the bending strength

requirement.

 Flow down of requirements, from global to specific structural

elements => knowing the maximum internal loads we can design

each element for strength

INTERNAL LOADS DURING GLOBAL
BENDING
 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 Flow down the global bending stiffness requirement to stiffness

requirements for a primary structural subsystem.

 Focus on the side frame due to its effect on bending stiffness

ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 The model is restrained at the front suspension attachment point by
restraining deflection in all three directions (but allowing rotation
about all three axes) and restrained at the rear suspension
attachment point in the vertical direction and out-of-plane direction.

 A downward load is applied at the node where B pillar attaches to the

rocker, simulating the H point bending test.

 The result of this analysis is the deflected shape of the side frame.
By taking the ratio of applied load to deflection at the node of load
application, we can calculate the bending stiffness for the side frame.
 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 Importance of joint flexibility

 Very important physical behavior of the thin-walled beam sections:

whenever two or more thin-walled beams are joined, there is

considerable localized deformation. This localized deflection has the

effect of a flexible joint between beams.

 Adjusting the FEA to contain flexible joints, we can achieve much

better correlation with actual stiffness.

 Rather than attaching a beam end rigidly to a node, we will instead

attach the beam to a node through a rotational stiffness.

 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 The rotational stiffness value is determined by extracting the physical
joint from the body structure, restraining all beam connections except
one, and applying a moment at that beam connection.

 The resulting rotational deflection is measured and a moment-

rotational angle curve plotted. The slope of this curve is the joint
stiffness.
ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 The absolute value for joint stiffness is difficult to interpret.

 It is helpful to compare the joint stiffness to the bending stiffness of

the beam to which it is attached.

 Joint efficiency f
ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
 What if our initial guess does not give a stiffness which meets the
required bending stiffness?

 Which beams or joints to adjust first? / Minimum mass solution

 Strain energy e

 As the bending load is applied to the body structure, the structure

deflects at the point of load application.

 As the applied load moves through this displacement, it does work.

This external work is stored as strain energy in each of the structural
elements as they deform under the load.

 The strain energy in a structural element may be calculated if we

know the applied moments.
 ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS

 To improve the stiffness of a structural system, increase the

performance of the structural element with the highest fraction of
strain energy.
ANALYSIS OF BODY BENDING
STIFFNESS
MEETING STIFFNESS AND STRENGTH
REQUIREMENTS