Modal Analysis of Vehicle Body Based on a Novel Triangular Shell Element

As the existing triangular shell elements are difficult for simulation of vehicle body, a novel triangular shell element using edge-based smoothing operation is proposed for modal analysis of vehicle body parts. The formulation is based on the first order shear deformation theory, and a discrete shear gap method is employed to mitigate the shear locking. The domain is first discretized into a set of unstructured triangular meshes, and the integration domains associated with the edges of the triangles are then further formed. An edge local coordinate system is introduced for performing strain smoothing operations in each integration domain, and the system stiffness matrix is tuned effectively, which can obtain very accurate results. The discretized system equations are obtained by using the smoothed Galerkin weak form, and the stiffness and mass matrices are formulated. Modal analyses of complex vehicle body parts are studied and comparisons are made with the existing software and reference results, and which verify the effectiveness and high precision of the proposed algorithm.