Parametric study using an integrated design system to assess fatigue durability of control arms in automobile suspension module

Abstract

The Finite Element (FE) modeling support system enables easy and fast FE modeling to be conducted for static and durability analysis in the design of automobile suspension modules. It takes into account the entire design process verifying the index of fatigue durability, which is used to satisfy design criteria. To perform process automation and integrate the FE modeling support system, an integrated design system is implemented based on the JADE (Java Agent DEvelopment) platform to meet the standard specifications of FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agent) and has various types of agents. As a case study, the design of the control arms in an automobile suspension module, several main independent parameters, i.e. width, height, fillet radius and thickness, are changed via PSG (Parametric Set Generator) for automatic generation of a parametric model, and the index of fatigue durability is investigated due to subsequent changes of these parameters. In comparison with a conventional fatigue durability analysis, this integrated design system brings a reduction of man-hours of as much as 27%. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.