Light weighting opportunities and material choice for commercial vehicle frame structures from a design point of view

Abstract

This paper focuses on an estimation of light weighting opportunities for the frame structure of commercial road vehicles. This estimation is based on simplified static load cases which play a predominant role for the dimensioning of a frame structure and therefore these simplifications are not putting the general validity of the conclusions into question. A comparison of different materials under this scenario shows that light metals do not show any weight reduction advantage in comparison to steel while a material-independent topology optimization has more weight reduction potential for the frame structure than a simple change of materials. Considering the constraints of part complexity which is directly linked with production and assembly cost, the ladder frame structure has become the current state of the art design. Thus the paper also puts a spotlight on basic rules of node design and vertical load induction in order to keep the weight of such a design as low as possible. Practical examples from manufacturers show that the weight of a commercial vehicle could be reduced by 10% and main parts of the frame structure could be reduced by 30% using high strength steel in combination with innovative production methods like roll forming.

On the Use of Steel and Aluminum Materials for Frame Structure of Electric Trike

“…Several works investigated the usage of aluminum materials to replace steel materials as vehicle frames. Seyfried et al discussed the weight reduction of several heavy-duty vehicle producers when replacing several parts of its frame from steel to aluminum, which successfully reduce its overall weight of the dump truck by 1900 kg and leads to reduced fuel consumption and tire wear (Seyfried et al, 2015). Saito et al developed the vehicle body structure using an aluminum hybrid.…”

Magnezyum ve Alaşımlarının Toz Metalurjisi İşlemleri

“…Ortalama bir aracın ağırlığının % 70'ini çelik malzemeler oluşturmaktadır [8]. Her ne kadar yeni nesil çeliklerin kullanılmasıyla birlikte daha ince kesitli çelik malzemelerle araç ağırlığında bir miktar düşme sağlanmış olsa da [9], [10], günümüzde çeliğin yerini alabilecek nitelikte gerekli fiziksel ve mekanik özellikleri gösterebilecek hafif malzemelerle ilgili çalışmalar otomotiv üreticilerinin başlıca odak noktalarından birini oluşturmaktadır. Özellikle çelik malzemelerin kullanım alanını düşürmek amaçlandığı zaman gerekli dayanımı polimer esaslı malzemelerin sağlaması mümkün değildir.…”

An Economical Route Planning Method for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle in Real World

“…To realize green travel, great efforts have been made in mining the potential of the vehicle itself; for example, improved engine combustion technologies [6][7][8], light weight vehicle technologies [9][10][11], alternative fuel technologies [12][13][14] and hybrid powertrains [15][16][17]. Among the mentioned technologies, hybrid vehicles are seen as one of the reasonable solutions to reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions without sacrificing drivability [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”