Grant: Automotive Partnership Canada Project

With new government regulations on fuel efficiency and C02 emissions, automotive manufacturers are undertremendous pressure to reduce vehicle mass drastically. As an example, OEMs have to significantly improve vehiclemileage through a series of steps beginning in 2016 through to 2025 due to the mandated Corporate Average FuelEconomy (CAFE). The fuel economy requirements will transform the way in which vehicles are designed andmanufactured as automakers are looking at every possible means to reduce weight.Topology optimization determines the optimum layout or distribution of material that minimizes weight while maintainingimportant performance characteristics; and this is one of the most effective and promising design techniques forreducing vehicle weight. The use of various lightweight materials in vehicle development is rapidly increasing, and thisraises a new design challenge: ""What are the optimum use and distribution of multiple materials and the optimum joiningmethods?"" Conventional optimization approaches are ill equipped for this challenge, and it is imperative to develop aneffective approach that can determine the optimum use of the multiple, dissimilar materials and their joining methods.The objectives of this research are (1) to determine optimum designs of next generation vehicle chassis joiningstrategies which utilize mixed materials and various joining methods (2) by developing advanced topology optimizationapproaches for multiple material joint designs and joining methods.By developing new techniques for multi-material and multi-joint topology optimization, optimized designs will bedetermined for the ladder chassis frame of a light-duty truck by General Motors of Canada. A total weight savings of30% is targeted, without sacrificing the strength or stiffness of the frame. The final deliverables for the project areproduction ready designs for next generation ladder frame assemblies as well as optimization-software modules for useby GM Canada in its early vehicle architecture development stage.