Abstract
This study proposes a structural design method for an outer tie rod installed at a passenger car. The weight of outer tie rod is optimized by adopting the developed aluminum and applying the structural optimization techniques. The aluminum alloy, Al6082M is developed as the steel-substitute material. The development of high strength aluminum with improved mechanical properties can reduce the weight of the outer tie rod. The newly developed aluminum alloy, Al6082M is applied as the material of the outer tie rod. Static strength due to inertia force, durability and buckling performances should be considered in the structural design of the outer tie rod. At the proto design stage of a new outer tie rod, it is cost-effective to utilize FE (finite element) analysis to predict each performance. In addition, the current trend in the structural design of automobile parts is to use optimization technique to reduce the weight. First, for an arbitrary base design, the response included in each design requirement is calculated to check whether the response satisfies its criterion. Then, the critical performance is selected so as to include its loading condition in the optimization process. In this study, the metamodel based optimization using kriging is adopted to obtain the minimum weight satisfying the critical design requirement. The determined optimum shape is investigated for the rest of performances.
Keywords: OTR(Outer tie rod), Structural Optimization, Kriging, Buckling