Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Application of design of experiments and dimensonal analysis for multi-material cantilever beam characterization
Submission Author:
Eduardo Telli , RS
Co-Authors:
Eduardo Telli, Daniel Milbrath De Leon, Ignacio Iturrioz, Gustavo Prates Mezzomo
Presenter: Eduardo Telli
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1149
Abstract
In the field of automotive lightweight construction, significant efforts are underway to decrease the weight of vehicles. However, the demand for increased safety and comfort has resulted in an increase in vehicle weight. To comply with upcoming regulations regarding climate protection, the automotive industry must employ innovative and comprehensive approaches to lightweight construction. The use of high-strength materials can partially offset this increase, as less material can achieve the same level of strength. Nonetheless, once a minimum thickness of a general component is reached, stability issues may arise. Also, composites are more prone to damage by friction and machining than conventional materials as, for example, steel. Therefore, the potential of high-strength materials for lightweight construction is limited. To drive cost-effective lightweight construction in the automotive industry, a promising approach is the use of multi-material systems, which combine high-strength steels and fiber-reinforced plastics in the same component. Moreover, as cantilever beams are common and fundamental structural elements, they are often chosen as a representative problem for automotive parts that are included in suspension systems, steering systems, and chassis components. In that sense, this work aims to explore the behavior of a multi-material cantilever beam composed of steel and unidirectional epoxy-fiberglass composite, unified by an interface element called 'pad', which is tied to the composite beam and slides without friction on the steel beam surface. Using finite element method, a 3D multi-material cantilever beam model under flexural load was built with fixed length and width while the of the composite and steel beams were parameterized. A technique of design of experiments was applied to cover an entire exploratory domain which limits the steel from 10.45 to 24mm and the composite from 5 to 43.7mm. 80 simulations were run and the reaction forces and moments in both beams and stiffness of the system were recovered for analysis. Furthermore, a dimensional analysis was carried out to find which dimensionless number governs the problem of a multi-material cantilever beam. Results shows that the bending stiffness ratio of the beams strongly dictates the behavior of reaction forces and moments as well as the resulting stiffness. When the dimensionless number equals 1, all forces and moments are balanced between the steel and composite beam. Plus, when this number is below 1, the resulting stiffness exponentially increases. Finally, this work provides analytical models that describes the results found, complementing the studies in the area of multi-material components.
Keywords
Multi-material, Modeling/Simulation, Composites, Lightweight, FEA simulation, Design of Experiment (DOE)
