Design optimisation for automotive applications

Abstract

In the early product design stage, various design optimisation methods should be explored in order to optimise product performance and reduce product cost. During the past several years, an effort has been going on to develop optimisation technology for various product applications in Visteon Automotive Systems. The challenges for the real-world applications are how to optimise products to meet product design requirements and how to convert the optimised design into a feasible design. The product design requirements may be achieved by properly formulating the design optimisation problems; however, not all the design specifications can be written in mathematical equations. Alternative approaches need innovative thinking to solve complex design problems. Also, extra efforts are necessary to create a feasible design from the multiple optimised designs. This paper presents the optimisation applications on automotive components/systems based on shape and topology optimisation methods. These applications show the advantages of design optimisation in improving product designs, resolving product issues, and saving product cost through innovative utilisation of design optimisation.