Alternative construction for body subassemblies and model variants

Open-topped vehicles pose a particular set of structural challenges.

The trend toward the use of common floor platforms for a range (or even several ranges) of vehicles has
become widespread for reasons of economy.
This might tempt the vehicle designer to adopt ‘lower dominant’ structures in which the upper part of the
body plays a relatively minor role. For this reason, open vehicles receive special attention in this chapter.
Detailed discussion of rationalization of structures across a vehicle range based on a common platform is
deferred to Chapter 9.
It is usually more difficult to provide a satisfactory structure for the vehicle torsion load case. For brevity in
this chapter, most examples are discussed principally in relation to the torsion case. It is usually a
straightforward matter to ‘read over’ to the load paths in the vehicle bending case which is the other principal
load case (see Chapter 2).

Application of the SSS method to an existing vehicle structure

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Bending case design implications
 Examination of the edge loads, shear force and bending moment diagrams indicates some of the
design features that must be incorporated when designing the various components.
 The front suspension tower has high shear loads indicating that good shear connections must he made
to the engine rail and to the upper fender rail. Because the tower is not very wide and it is very deep
the bending loads are not of great significance.
 In contrast the bending moment on the engine rail at the suspension tower connection is significant, as
is the shear force connection to the dash panel.
 Alternative models could consider that the reaction at the rear of the engine rail be applied to the
cross- member under the front seats. This would increase the shear forces to the dash panel and to the
cross-member.
 The floor cross-beam at the front seats and the central longitudinal beam have been treated in a
simplified manner to determine the loads to the sills, the dash panel and the rear seat cross-beam.
 The seat loads could be distributed at four places on the crossbeam and two on the longitudinal, but
this will lead to more complicated equations that are tedious to solve.
 The bending moment on the dash panel is a hogging moment while that on the rear seat cross-beam is
a sagging moment.
 As the dash panel is very deep bending is not a severe load condition but the side shear force on the
deep panel may indicate the need of stiffeners (swaging).
 The rear seat cross-beam is not so deep and bending stresses may be significant. Good shear
connections are required to the sills (rockers).
 It should be noted that the rear floor beams although made of five SSSs have to be considered together
in order to determine the shear forces and moments.
 The angled beam connecting the suspension mounting point to the sill carries the largest bending
moment and shear force. This bending moment is balanced by moments in the rear longitudinal beam
and in the short cross-beam.
 As the short cross-beam has a constant bending moment the shear force is zero and hence the
suspension force is carried in shear to the angled and longitudinal beams.
 The need for a good shear connection to the sill and the need for a good joint connection of the three
beams is indicated by these loads. Figure 8.3 shows a large pressing providing the connection between
the beams which is necessary for carrying all the forces and moments generated at this point.
 The rear panel is subject to a constant bending moment over the centre section where the depth is
reduced for access to the boot. Fortunately, this moment is not excessive so for this case it does not
cause any design difficulty.
 Finally, examine the side frame which has a large number of component loads, distributed loads due to
the weight of the body itself plus the edge loads from the SSSs already mentioned.
 The maximum shear forces occur near the attachment to the dash panel and at the rear of the sill
(rocker). In between these two sections there is a sagging moment with its maximum occurring near
the B-pillar while the front and rear parts have hogging moments (i.e. the front fender and rear quarter
panel act like cantilevers protruding from the rings around the door apertures).

21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34