Computer-Aided Design Applied to a Model of a Chassis Type Structure Using Finite Element Techniques

Abstract

The finite element technique has been used for the examination of a chassis-type structure. A computer program was developed to predict the static and dynamic behaviour of frames. The program is quite general but its use has been restricted to structures consisting of beam elements only.

A scale model of a production car chassis was made in perspex. Nodal displacements of the model, in bending and torsion, natural frequencies and corresponding mode shapes were predicted by the computer program and confirmed experimentally in the laboratory. Several coarser idealizations of the model were examined to study the effect on the accuracy of predictions and the computation time.

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