Advances in Beam-based Analysis Motivated by Efficient Design of Vehicle Body Structures
Yoon Young Kim, Seoul National University
In spite of a long history to use simplified beam models for the design of vehicle body structures at an initial design stage, it is not yet possible to accurately analyze their mechanical behavior with a simplified beam-based model and to perform reliable and efficient design optimization. This difficulty arises mainly due to the lack of a beam theory or a finite element method that is sufficiently accurate, versatile and efficient enough to deal with “thin-walled” beam structures used in vehicles; commonly used Timoshenko/Euler beam elements cannot “correctly” capture extra flexibilities observed especially at joints of thin-walled beams of a vehicle body.
Motivated by this need, we have long developed a new beam theory, called “the higher-order beam theory (HoBT)” having more degrees of freedom than the classical theories and carried out its finite element implementation. In this talk, we present some of our recent promising results accurately predicting not only displacement but also stress fields for thin-walled beam structures. Several examples including body-in-white models will be considered to show the effectiveness of the developed HoBT- based finite beam elements. It is expected that the developed beam elements can be included as a standard element in finite element software in a near future.
Yoon Young Kim, Seoul National University
In spite of a long history to use simplified beam models for the design of vehicle body structures at an initial design stage, it is not yet possible to accurately analyze their mechanical behavior with a simplified beam-based model and to perform reliable and efficient design optimization. This difficulty arises mainly due to the lack of a beam theory or a finite element method that is sufficiently accurate, versatile and efficient enough to deal with “thin-walled” beam structures used in vehicles; commonly used Timoshenko/Euler beam elements cannot “correctly” capture extra flexibilities observed especially at joints of thin-walled beams of a vehicle body.
Motivated by this need, we have long developed a new beam theory, called “the higher-order beam theory (HoBT)” having more degrees of freedom than the classical theories and carried out its finite element implementation. In this talk, we present some of our recent promising results accurately predicting not only displacement but also stress fields for thin-walled beam structures. Several examples including body-in-white models will be considered to show the effectiveness of the developed HoBT- based finite beam elements. It is expected that the developed beam elements can be included as a standard element in finite element software in a near future.
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