1998 Winter
MEAM599-02 Automotive Body Structure
A GM Sponsored Course in the University of Michigan
1. Steven Ashley, Steel cars face a weighty desision : Pressure to improve automotive gas mileage is driving efforts to find new ways to reduce the weight of steel car-body structures, Mechanical Engineering, ASME, February 1997, p 56-61
2. Steven Ashley, Composite car structures pass the crash test, Mechanical Engineering, ASME, December 1996, p 59-63
If you do not get the handout material, please contact to the instructor. Since we do not have the textbook, we will provide handout of some selected course presentation material used in the classes. These handout and notes can be read by Adobe Acrobat 3.0 Reader. Acrobat 3.0 Reader can be downloaded from Adobe, and these files should be read in any Mac, Window, and Unix computers. If you do not have this software, please down load it first.
Class notes will be updated regularly to reflect change made during and after teaching. Whenever they are modified, we indicate by "Revised on XX/XX/XX" Whenever you find some class notes revised, please down load them.
No part of the following articles may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the authors, Donald Malen and Noboru Kikuchi. All right is reserved by the authors.
Class Notes
1. Class Note #1 : Nomenclature ( 01/12/98 )
2. Class Note #2 : Requirement 1 ( 01/15/98 ; Revised on 01/29/97 )
3. Class Note #3 : Requirement 2 ( 01/21/98 ; Revised on 01/29/97 )
4. Class Note #4 : Requirement 3 ( 01/21/98 ; Revised on 01/29/97 )
5. Class Note #5 : Global Bending 1 ( 02/16/98 )
6. Class Note #6 : Side Frame Analysis 1 ( 01/30/98 )
7. Class Note #7 : Side Frame Analysis 2 ( 02/04/98 ; Revised 0n 02/09/98 )
8. Class Note #8 : Global Bending 2 ( 02/16/98 )
9. Class Note #9 : Global Torsion ( 02/16/98 )
10. Class Note #10 : Shear Panel 1 ( 02/11/98 )
11. Class Note #11 : Topology 1 ( 02/17/98 ; Revised on 02/24/98 )
12. Class Note #12 : Buckling 1 : Introduction( 03/16/98 )
13. Class Note #13 : Buckling 2 : Inhibiting( 03/16/98, revised on 03/23/98 )
14. Class Note #14 : Buckling 3 : Effective Width ( 03/16/98, revised on 03/23/98 )
15. Class Note #15 : Panels - Normal Deformation ( 03/30/98 )
16. Class Note #16 : Vibration ( 03/30/98, revised on 04/13/98 )
17. Class Note #17 : Material Substitution ( 04/13/98 )
18. Class Note #18 : Architecture ( 04/13/98 )
19. Class Note #19 : Local Deformation, Joint, and Welding ( 04/13/98 )
20. Class Note #20 : Welding Related ( 04/13/98 )
21. Class Note #21 : Summary of the Course ( 04/20/98 )
Additional Notes
1. Additional Note #1 : First Order Analysis ( 01/12/98 )
2. Additional Note #2 : Structural Idealization ( 01/12/98 )
3. Additional Note #3 : Engineering Beam Theory and Its FEA ( 01/20/98 )
4. Additional Note #4 : FEM for Panels and Bars ( 02/10/98 )
5. Additional Note #5 : FEM for Plane Beam for Side Frame Analysis and Topology ( 02/25/98, revised on 03/11/98 )
MATLAB Programs
1. MATLAB Program #1 : FEM with Plane Beams and Flexible Joints ( 02/25/98 )
Solutions of the homework problems were posted. I apologize that grading of the second and third homeworks was delayed so long. I had some difficulty to grade them, since any one single mistake makes quite different solutions at the end. Please look at the solutions I prepared, and examine them.
The grade sheet of the homework is posted as follows. If you have any question, please contact with Kikuchi by e-mail, not by telephone.
There is a mistakes in the take home part of the final examination. I forgot to specify the location of the applied load F in the second problem. The location must be 2 cm from the right edge, and 6 cm from the left edge. Please add this information.
You may pick up several candidate points of the location A on the bottom, right, and left edges, and draw a curve of the local stiffness k, and you may determine the best location.
By the way, the final examination will be OPEN NOTE ! You can bring your notes, class notes we posted on the web, and additional notes posted on the web, as well as possibly the course pack. We strongly suggest you to look at the Class Note 21 for SUMMARY of the course, where you can find the most important information for your final examination.
1. Final Examination
50% In-Class Examination for short questions about definitions, basic concepts, and others ( 60-80 min )
Close Books and Notes
50% Take Home Exam ( 2 problems ) for strength and stiffness estimation, welding spot distance prediction, and other questions you may need computer software such as CAR'96 for Window.
This part should be finished within 1 full day after the In-Class examination
2. Term Project
Individual or Group ( 2 or 3 person, not more than 4 )
Final report must be prepared together with 3~5 slide format viewgraphs for short presentation at the last day of the class ( 5 ~ 10 min each )
3. One page proposal must be submitted by Feb 23 that contains short description of the project you will work in this course. (01/29/98)
4. Final report should about 5~10 pages. It must contain 1) Introduction / Background , 2) Description of the Problem, 3) Results and Discussion, and 4) Conclusion and Further Suggestion for Future Work. Please use word processing software, that is, no hand written final reports. (01/29/98)