Design for Safety and Comfort

Objectives

The main objective of this course is to lead the students to a comprehensive understanding of how the computer-aided engineering (CAE) is currently applied during the new vehicle developments, especially within the passive safety and vehicle structure development.

For this purpose, the whole vehicle development process will be presented. The different CAE disciplines used frequently for the design of the full vehicle as well as automobile components will be introduced and associated with the mathematical and physical models studied in previous courses.

A deep explanation of the CAE modelling process during full vehicle crash development will also be given in this course. This process includes the pre-processing of the automobile main structural parts, their assembling, the management of full vehicle CAE models, and the post-processing of the calculated full vehicle crash cases. The automobile impact dynamic, forces distribution, crash consequences and automobile weak zones will be considered.

In order to understand why these full vehicle crash models are necessary for the new vehicle developments, an overview of the current world regulations and consumer tests (e.g. EuroNCAP) related to passive safety will be presented in this subject. An introduction in the new regulations related to electric vehicles will be also given here. A shallow introduction of the safety elements and components of a car will be also given during the course.

Learning outcomes

• RA4. Student knows in deep finite element codes and applications industrially used for advanced simulations within automobile development.
• RA5. Student knows the validation process of simulated models using experimental results.
• RA6. Student knows the passive safety elements in a vehicle.
• RA7. Student knows the advanced dynamics principles to simulate impact between bodies.

Competencies

Specific skills

• Identify and understand spatial vision and graphic representation techniques, using traditional methods of metric and descriptive geometry, and computer-aided design applications, and apply these techniques in the design and manufacturing processes automotive engineering.
• Know about and apply the principles of production systems and manufacturing processes, metrology and quality control and environmental and sustainability technology in engineering and the automotive sector.
• Understand the basic principles of use and programming of computers, operating systems, databases, software applications in engineering, industrial computing and communications networks, and apply this to engineering in general and to the design of connectivity systems in the automotive sector.
• Understand the concept of enterprise and its institutional, legal and economic framework, and use resources for organisation, management and quality management of companies; know about organisational structure and functions of an engineering project office, and know how to use techniques to organise, manage and lead projects.
• Understand the principles of materials science, technology and chemistry, and the relationship between microstructure, synthesis and processing, and properties, and use this knowledge to solve problems in automotive engineering; understand the principles of strength and elasticity of materials, and apply this to the behaviour of real solids.
• Understand the principles of mathematical theory in order to solve mathematical problems that may arise in engineering and apply knowledge to: linear algebra, geometry, differential geometry, differential and integral calculus, ordinary and partial differential equations, numerical methods, numerical algorithms, statistics and optimisation.
• Work in a multilingual, multidisciplinary environment, and make oral presentations and write reports in English in the field of engineering, in general, and in the automotive sector, in particular.

Core skills

• Exercise active citizenship and individual responsibility with a commitment to the values of democracy, sustainability and universal design, through practice based on learning, service and social inclusion.

Content

• Lesson 1. General full vehicle development
  • The importance of computer-aided engineering (CAE) within the vehicle development
  • The CAE disciplines during vehicle development. Introduction to associated physical and mathematical models
• Lesson 2. Crash vehicle development using CAE
  • Pre-processing: From CAD to CAE: parts geometries, meshing, materials assignment, full vehicle models management, load cases management, jobs launching. Modeling techniques
  • Post-processing: Full vehicle crash simulation analysis. How far are CAE results from reality - experiments? CAE Model correlation. Baseline-countermeasures process
• Lesson 3. Passive and active safety elements on a vehicle. Vehicle structure - Body in White: Structural materials (steel ranges, aluminium and new materials), vehicle structure zones, join techniques. Forces distribution and energy absorption during crash
• Lesson 4. Safety crash regulations and consumer tests (ECE, EuroNCAP...) New regulations and rules for hybrid and electric cars.
• Lesson 5. CAE full vehicle models management using programing. Linux, Bash, Python
• Lesson 6. CAE and economy. What should I pay for? How much?

Evaluation

The final qualification (FQ) will be obtained with following formula (NEW 2023):

FQ = 60% CA + 40% exams

Continuous assessment (CA): 60%

• 10% corresponds to the active participation of the students during online classes. Individual evaluation.
• 15% corresponds to the student's practical class works and exercises during the course. Individual evaluation.
• 20% correspond to the main lessons summaries. To achieve this qualification a minimum of 2 summaries must be delivered by the student. Individual evaluation.
• 15% corresponds to the groups practical class works and exercises during the course. Group evaluation. Whole collaboration and participation of all group members will be evaluated.

This qualification CANNOT be recovered

Exams: 40%

Exam qualification corresponds to the maximum value of:

• Option 1 - When the student passes the first "Examen Parcial": 40 % FQ will be the sume of "Examen parcial" (lessons explained until the "Examen Parcial") and "Examen final" (remaining lessons *) qualifications.
• Option 2 - When the student does not pass the first "Examen Parcial": 40 % will be the “Examen final” (all evaluated lessons *) qualification.

To pass the course DFSC it is necessary a minimum qualification of 3.5 at exams.

• Option 3 - when the student does not PASS the whole subject either by option 1 or option 2: FQ = 100 % “Examen de recuperació final” (all evaluated lessons *).

* Lessons 5 and 6 will not be evaluated.

Methodology

The subject will be mainly a mix of practice and theoretical lessons. Most of the lectures will be given by video-conference using the Zoom platform.

It is essential that the students have a laptop or a workstation to follow the course by Zoom (or alternative) and to carry out the different proposed exercises.

The theoretical lessons will be supported by a PowerPoint presentation.

CAE full vehicle models will be presented and explained in order to show the students the common simulation practices in the industry. The use of Linux OS is highly recommended for the students during some of the course hours in order to read and analyze the full vehicle CAE models.

Crash test videos of experimental test mainly obtained from the internet (e.g. YouTube, EuroNCAP webpage) will be analyzed to validate the simulation results.

The software 3DEXPERIENCE should be installed in the corresponding laptop/workstations and it should work in the proper way:

• Hardware recommended (not mandatory!) for 3DEXPERIENCE

A strong active participation of the students would be demanded during the lessons in order to make the most of the lecture hours.

A role play is planned during the course in order to discuss about the different points of views of the multiple departments during a new vehicle development (development, production, sales, marketing … ). This role play will take place in the UGranollers Can Muntanyola facilities during the course hours.

At Uvic-UCC Granollers there are available laptops and workstations. 3DExperience applications are working properly at these PCs (CATIA, SIMULIA, ...):

• Laptop Lenovo 80WK: Core i5-73000HQ 2.5GHz, Gràfica NVidia Geforce GTX1050 4Gb, RAM 12 Gb, SSD
• Laptop Asus Republic of Gamers GL553V: Core i7 7700HQ 2.8Ghz, Gràfica Nvidia Geforce GTX1050 4Gb, RAM 12 Gb, SSD
• Workstation MSI WE63 8SI 495ES: Intel Core i7 8750H/ 2.2GHz, Gràfica Nvidia Quadro P1000, RAM 16Gb, 256 GB SSD + 1TB HD

An outlook of the "DFSC_ 2023 Pla de treball - Work plan" that can be found at "aula virtual UVic-UCC" is recommended.

Bibliography

Key references

• Moukalled, F., Magani, L. , Darwish, M. (2016). The Finite Volume Method in Computational Fluid Dynamics. Springer.