Designing lightweight diesel engine alternator support bracket with topology optimization methodology

Decreasing fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions have been an important issue nowadays for automotive industry after new regulations. Fuel consumption is also an important parameter that highly affects the customers’ choice. Reduction of total vehicle weight with optimization is one of the common methods to improve fuel consumption and emissions. There are a lot of studies on body, interior, and engine components of the vehicle to improve fuel efficiency and emissions including design modifications, using alternative material and architectural optimizations. In this article, the optimization of an aluminum support bracket that carry alternator and hydraulic steering pump is studied. First, design space is determined with layout analysis defining constraints and fixing points. Then, topology optimization method is applied in order to explore the load carrying path of the component. Final design is frozen through computational analysis verifications and industrialization phase modifications. A comparison of the new design with the actual production showed that the mass of the current design could be reduced by 37%, while all product expectations were met.