: It is well known that the targeted fuel efficiency could only be achieved by more than 40% reduction of the vehicle weight through improved design and extensive utilization of lightweight materials. In order to obtain the goal of the weight reduction of automobiles, the researches about lighter and stronger rear sub-frame have been studied without sacrificing the safety of rear sub-frame. In this study, the weight reduction design process of rear sub-frame could be proposed based on the variation of von-Mises stress contour by substituting an AA6061 (aluminum 6061 alloy) having tensile strength of 310 MPa grade instead of SAPH440 steels. In addition, the stress ratio variations (stress over fatigue limit) of the rear sub-frame were examined and compared carefully. It could be reached that this approach method could be well established and be contributed for light-weight design guide and the optimum design conditions of the automotive rear sub-frame development.
The scheme and procedure for thermal fatigue estimation of a thermally stratified branch line were developed. Oneway FSI (fluid and structure interaction) scheme was applied to evaluate the thermal stratification piping. Thermal flow analysis, stress analysis and fatigue estimation were performed in serial order. Finally, detailed monitoring locations and mitigation scheme for the integrity maintenance of piping were recommended. All wall mesh and transient temperature distribution data obtained from the CFD (computational fluid dynamics) analysis were directly imported into the input data of stress analysis model without any calculation for heat transfer coefficients. Cumulated usage factors for fatigue effect review with nodes were calculated. A modified method that combines ASME Section III, NB-3600 with NB-3200 was used because the previous method cannot consider the thermal stratification stress intensity. As the results of evaluation, the SCS (shutdown cooling system) line, branch piping of the RCS (reactor coolant system) line, shows that the CUF (cumulative usage factor) value exceeds 1.0, ASME Code limit, in case thermal stratification load is included. The HPSI (high pressure safety injection) line, re-branch piping, shows that temperature difference between top and bottom of piping exceeds the criterion temperature, 28℃, and that the CUF value exceeds 1.0. Therefore, these branch pipings require a detailed review, monitoring or analysis. In particular, it is recommended that the HPSI piping should be shifted backward to decrease the influence of turbulent penetration intensity from the RCS piping.
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