Roof Structure Design and Evaluation for Improvement of Roof Strength of Three-Wheel Vehicles

Abstract

This paper is concerned with auto-body frames and roof structures against rollover motion which could take place frequently with TWVs compared to FWVs because of the major difference of the loading between the two motions. Topology optimization is utilized for conceptual design and preliminary design of the roof structure for various loading conditions. The roof structure for TWV consists of existing part of FWV and a new part called Cross-bar reinforcement. Although a test method for regulation of roof strength is with static loading, simulations are carried out for both static and dynamic cases. In the dynamic loading case, rate-dependency of a material needs to be considered for accurate results of FE analysis.