A Weight-reduction Design Method by Underframe Material Substitution in a Box-type Bodyshell with Cut-outs

In this paper, a theoretical weight-reduction method was suggested to substitute an underframe material of a box-type bodyshell having cut-outs with an alternative light-weight material. To utilize the material substitution method previously developed for a box-type hybrid bodyshell not having cut-outs, we derived a box-type baseline model without cut-outs which is similar to the stiffness condition of a box-type bodyshell having cut-outs. To do this, the thicknesses of roof and walls of the baseline model were determined such that the deflection of the baseline model under a distributed vertical load condition is equal to the sum of the theoretical section deflections of the original box model with cut-outs. Next, to derive a hybrid bodyshell by under-frame material substitution, the material substitution method for a box-type hybrid bodyshell without cut-outs was applied to the box-type baseline model. Finally, we compared the FE simulation results of the derived hybrid bodyshells having cut-outs for various materials with the theoretical results of the suggested method, and we obtained their good correlations.