Abstract
Keywords - structural durability, crash, lightweight design, CO2 reduction, body in white
Research activities on simulation and testing of various material combinations and joining techniques with respect to structural durability and crash performance are presented. The focus is on analysing an innovative light-weight multi-material car body concept, developed in the European funded project SuperLightCar (SLC) . In this context, special procedures for durability analyses of joining technologies for light-weight and highstrength materials are discussed. Exemplarily, the fatigue and crash performance of a subassembly of the body in white (BIW) developed in the SLC project will be compared to a reference, a state-of-the-art subassembly using steel technology.
In order to derive input data for analyses of the crash performance high-speed tests with joint specimens are performed. Accordingly, for analysing structural durability based on FE models coupon fatigue tests form additional input. Furthermore fatigue validation tests on a subassembly are performed. Additional strain analyses allow evaluating the complete numerical durability assessment.