A feasibility study to replace steel made hood panels by magnesium alloy made hood panels

Magnesium alloys as the substitution for heavy metals such as steel and aluminum alloys can substantially reduce weight at many structural parts with design changes. Magnesium alloys also have advantages in recycling, stiffness, NVH, and heat protection. Since magnesium alloy parts such as steering wheels, seat frames, and oil pans are mainly manufactured by die casting processes, their levels of productivity are not so high compared to sheet metal working. In this study, hood panels with magnesium sheets which have mechanical characteristics equivalent to steel sheets are designed and analyzed. By using finite element analysis, the thicknesses of the inner and outer panel under some design requirements are determined and the shape of the hood inner panel and hinge reinforcements were changed. Dent ability analysis on panel is performed to confirm the new magnesium hood panel by a nonlinear FEM package. Analysis results show that hood panels of magnesium sheets have higher performance in dent ability compared with those of steel sheets.