• 한국기계가공학회지
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• 제8권4호
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• pp.69-75
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• 2009

Recently developed automotive components are getting lighter providing a higher fuel efficiency and performance. Following the current trend, this study proposes a structural optimization method for the lower control arm installed at the front side of a Vehicle. Lightweight design of lower control arm can be achieved through design and material technology. In this research, the shape of lower control arm was determined by applying the optimization technology and aluminum was selected as a steel-substitute material. Strength performance is the most important design requirement in the structural design of a control arm. This study considers the static strength in the optimization process. For the optimum design, the durability analysis is performed to predict its fatigue life. In this study, the kriging interpolation method is adopted to obtain the minimum weight satisfying the strength constraint. Optimum designs are obtained by the in-house program, EXCEL-Kriging. Also, based on the optimum model obtained for the static strength, the optimization of Index of Fatigue Durability is carried out to get th optimum fatigue performance.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• 제8권6호
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• pp.745-752
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• 2007

In this study, the effects of flexible bodies in vehicle suspension components were investigated to enhance the accuracy of multibody dynamic simulation results. Front and rear suspension components were investigated. Subframes, a stabilizer bar, a tie rod, a front lower control arm, a front knuckle, and front struts were selected. Reverse engineering techniques were used to construct a virtual vehicle model. Hard points and inertia data of the components were measured with surface scanning equipment. The mechanical characteristics of bushings and dampers were obtained from experiments. Reaction forces calculated from the multibody dynamics simulations were compared with test results at the ball joint of the lower control arm in both time-history and range-pair counting plots. Simulation results showed that the flexibility of the strut component had considerable influence on the lateral reaction force. Among the suspension components, the flexibility of the sub-frame, steering knuckle and upper strut resulted in better correlations with test results while the other flexible bodies could be neglected.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.309-317
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• 2007

In this study, we conducted a vibration fatigue analysis of the lower control arm in a vehicle suspension system. The vehicle was driven during the tests so that the dynamic effects could be taken into account. The dynamic load of the frequency domain was superimposed on the frequency response analysis. We performed a virtual proving ground test using multi-body dynamics, along with a finite element analysis and fatigue life predictions. Shape optimization was also considered using the design of the experimental approach, and a response surface analysis was performed to improve the durability performance of the lower control arm. We identified the elements that had the most influence on the optimal shape of the finite element model and analyzed the sensitivity of those elements. Then the optimal points that minimized the amount of damage to the areas of interest were determined through a response surface analysis. The results suggested that the fatigue life of the model increased as its mass was not increased excessively, and demonstrated that these design procedures yielded an appropriate optimized lower control arm model.

• 대한기계학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한기계학회 2008년도 추계학술대회A
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• pp.453-458
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• 2008

Under driving condition, A vehicle experiences various kinds of loads, which brings on the buckling and fracture of suspension systems. Lower control arm (LCA), which consists of 2 bush joints and 1 ball joint connection, is the one of the most important parts in the suspension system. The bush joints absorb the impact load and reduce the vibration from the road. When analyzing the LCA behavior, it is important to understand the material properties and boundary conditions of bushing systems correctly, because of the nonlinearity characteristics of the rubber. In this paper, in order to predict the large scale deformation of the LCA more precisely, three factors are newly suggested, that is, coupling of bush stiffness between translation and rotation, bush extraction force and maximum rotation angle of ball joint. LCA stiffness is estimated by CAE and component test. Analysis and test results are almost same and the validity of considering three factors in LCA analysis is verified.

• 한국산업융합학회 논문집
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.77-84
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• 2010

Recently, the concept of structural design against instability has been proposed in the chassis parts. The design considerations of lower control arm of chassis parts under the buckling and durability strengths are the general. More precisely, this paper considers a specific application and associated optimization problem for two strengths, where the design variables are the physical or geometric dimensions for skins and stiffeners. The objective is the minimization of the total weight, while optimization constrains involve reserve or improve factors for the buckling and durability strengths. The most important features are related to the numerical simulations for the estimation of buckling factor and their sensitivities by means of nonlinear and linear finite element analyses. The bucking and durability strength analyses, and the morping geometries are directly included in the optimization problem and the modified design is formulated. As a result, the optimal structure with stable behavior is obtained or increases the buckling and durability strengths of parts. Most of design problems for structures exposed to elastic instability can be formulated and solved.