Application of Topology, Size and Shape Optimization Methods in Polymer Metal Hybrid Structural Lightweight Engineering

Application of the engineering design optimization methods and tools to the design of automotive body-in-white (BIW) structural components made of polymer metal hybrid (PMH) materials is considered. Specifically, the use of topology optimization in identifying the optimal initial designs and the use of size and shape optimization techniques in defining the final designs is discussed. The optimization analyses employed were required to account for the fact that the BIW structural PMH component in question may be subjected to different in-service loads be designed for stiffness, strength or buckling resistance and that it must be manufacturable using conventional injection over-molding. The paper demonstrates the use of various engineering tools, i.e. a CAD program to create the solid model of the PMH component, a meshing program to ensure mesh matching across the polymer metal interfaces, a linear-static analysis based topology optimization tool to generate an initial design, a nonlinear statics-based size and shape optimization program to obtained the final design and a mold-filling simulation tool to validate manufacturability of the PMH component.