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Fundamentals of

Automobile Body
Structure Design
Table of Contents

Contents:

Chapter 1 - The Automobile Body .......................................................... 1

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5

Description of the Automobile Body Types ................................................ 3

Body Nomenclature ....................................................................................... 5
Body Mass Benchmarking ........................................................................... 10
The Body Structure as a System ................................................................. 11
Note on Design Philosophy ........................................................................ 12

Chapter 2 - Body Structural Requirements ............................................13

2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4

Categories of Structural Requirements...................................................... 14

The Locate and Retain Function ................................................................. 17
Locate and Retain for Front Suspension Attachment Structure ............ 20
Flow Down of Requirements from Vehicle-Level Functions ................. 30

Chapter 3 - Automotive Body Structural Elements .................................35

3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7

Overview of Classical Beam Behavior ....................................................... 36

Design of Automotive Beam Sections........................................................ 41
Torsion of Thin-Wall Members ................................................................... 50
Thin-Wall Beam Section Design in Automobiles ..................................... 70
Buckling of Thin-Walled Members ............................................................ 77
Automobile Body Panels: Plates and Membranes ................................. 100
Summary: Automotive Structural Elements........................................... 116

Chapter 4 - Design for Body Bending ..................................................119

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5

Body Bending Strength Requirement ...................................................... 120

Body Bending Stiffness Requirement ...................................................... 123
Internal Loads During Global Bending: Load Path Analysis............... 128
Analysis of Body Bending Stiffness ......................................................... 135
Principles of Good Joint Design ............................................................... 147

Chapter 5 - Design for Body Torsion ....................................................161

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5

Body Torsion Strength Requirement ........................................................ 162

Body Torsion Stiffness Requirement ........................................................ 163
Internal Loads During Global Torsion: Load Path Analysis ................ 167
Analysis of Body Torsional Stiffness ........................................................ 178
Torsional Stiffness of Convertibles and Framed Vehicles ..................... 192

Chapter 6 - Design for Crashworthiness ..............................................209

6.1

Standardized Safety Test Conditions and Requirements...................... 210

Fundamentals of Automobile Body Structure Design

Table of Contents cont.

Front Barrier ................................................................................................ 211
Side Impact .................................................................................................. 236
Note on Rear Impact .................................................................................. 245
Note on Roof Crush .................................................................................... 247

Chapter 7 - Design for Vibration .........................................................251

7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
7.10

First-Order Vibration Modeling ............................................................... 252

Source-Path-Receiver Models of Vibration Systems.............................. 256
Frequency Response of a Single-Degree-of-Freedom System .............. 260
SDOF Models of Vehicle Vibration Systems .......................................... 266
Strategies for Design for Vibration ........................................................... 281
Body Structure Vibration Testing ............................................................. 283
Modeling the Body Structure Resonant Behavior.................................. 285
Vibration at Frequencies Above the Primary Structure Modes ........... 290
Note on Use of Rotating Phasors to Solve Damped
Vibration Problems ..................................................................................... 306
Note on Mechanical Impedance Technique ............................................ 308

Chapter 8 - Design for Vehicle and Styling Integration .........................313

8.1
8.2
8.3
8.4
8.5
8.6
8.7

Designing the Best Body Structure........................................................... 314

Vehicle Layout ............................................................................................. 314
Exterior Body Surface ................................................................................ 326
Constraints on Body Structure from Vehicle Layout and
Exterior Surface ........................................................................................... 331
Body Structure Topology ........................................................................... 334
Load Path Design at Suspension Attachments....................................... 339
Summary ...................................................................................................... 348

Chapter 9 - Material Selection and Mass Estimation in

Preliminary Design ...........................................................................351
9.1
9.2

Materials for the Body-in-White ............................................................... 352

Preliminary Mass Analysis ........................................................................ 368

Appendices.......................................................................................381
A.
B.
C.

vi

Exercises ....................................................................................................... 381

Nomenclature .............................................................................................. 431
English & Metric Units & Typical Values for Key Parameters ............. 435

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6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5