The use of sandwich materials in automobile body panels is investigated in this study. In the first part, floor, luggage, firewall and rear wheel panels of a car body-in-white are replaced with panels made of sandwich materials in order to reduce the weight. Final sandwich material configurations are obtained through a trial and error based optimization approach where weights of the panels are minimized while keeping bending stiffness performances of the panels same. In the second part, the use of sandwich materials in laminated steel form as light weight alternatives to free layer surface damping treatments attached to floor panels is investigated. Free layer damping treatments are applied to body panels to decrease primarily the structure-borne noise inside the cabin. This effect is achieved by increasing structural damping in the panel structures. It has been demonstrated that, same level of vibration damping increase in a floor panel can be achieved using a sandwich material in laminated steel form with a lesser amount of weight addition to the original sheet metal floor panel compared to a free layer surface damping treatment.

Abstract