Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic method on the weld pitch design of a vehicle sub-frame considering the fatigue life of spot welding points. The input data, which perform the fatigue analysis on the spot welding nuggets, are obtained by both the dynamic analysis of the multi-body vehicle model passing through the virtual proving ground of a typical Belgian road and the quasi-static analysis with the finite element model of the vehicle sub-frame. By utilizing the life cycle data obtained from the fatigue analysis, the welding points to perform the pitch change are determined. The sensitivity analysis on the fatigue life of the welding points is carried out by using the three-level orthogonal array design, and through the results of the sensitivity analysis, the best combination on the welding pitch is determined. This study shows that as compared with the baseline design, the sub-frame redesigned by the proposed technique improves the fatigue life about 7 percent while reducing the number of welding points about 19 percent.
