Structural Optimization Methods and Techniques to Design Efficient Car Bodies
Global and intense competition in the automobile market impose automobile companies and their
engineers the need to design and build vehicles that perform better than their previous models, that are lighter,
more fuel efficient, quieter, pollute less and yet are cheaper to manufacture. In this paper, different optimization
methods and techniques that can be used to address some of these issues are discussed. Methods such as sizing,
shape, topology, topometry, topography and freeform optimization are described and examples on their use are
presented. Techniques that allow reinforcing structures, find load paths, find best location of welds are
discussed. The paper will provide bibliographical references that show what currently is being used in the
automobile industry. The paper will show that today optimization methods are mature and can be used at
different stages of the design process of vehicles.