Development of Vehicle Model Test for Road Loading Analysis of Sedan Model

Abstract

Simple Structural Surfaces (SSS) method is offered as a means of organizing the process for rationalizing the basic vehicle body structure load paths. The application of this simplified approach is highly beneficial in the design development of modern passenger car structure especially during the conceptual stage. In Malaysia, however, there is no real physical model of SSS available to gain considerable insight and understanding into the function of each major subassembly in the whole vehicle structures. Based on this motivation, a physical model of SSS for sedan model with the corresponding model vehicle tests of bending and torsion is proposed in this work. The proposed approach is relatively easy to understand as compared to Finite Element Method (FEM). The results show that the proposed vehicle model test is capable to show that satisfactory load paths can give a sufficient structural stiffness within the vehicle structure. It is clearly observed that the global bending stiffness reduce significantly when more panels are removed from a complete SSS model. It is identified that parcel shelf is an important subassembly to sustain bending load. The results also match with the theoretical hypothesis, as the stiffness of the structure in an open section condition is shown weak when subjected to torsion load compared to bending load. The proposed approach can potentially be integrated with FEM to speed up the design process of automotive vehicle.