Seminar: Design of Complex Vehicle Structures for Crashworthiness

For more than a decade, there have been various attempts to improve motor vehicle safety by designing complex crashworthy structures using topology optimization methods. For mildly nonlinear problems, investigators have relied on simplifications of the dynamic multi-body interaction and the structure’s nonlinear behavior to approximate sensitivity coefficients. That approach has been shown to be of limited use in large-scale, industrial applications. This research proposes a new design algorithm inspired in the distributed control mechanisms that govern biological functional adaptation—or the means by which biological structures become better suited to their environment. In this numerical approach, sensor and actuator are distributed throughout a prescribed design domain using cellular automata (CAs). A desired global structural response is achieved by design rules that locally modify the material distribution around each CA. The results obtained by the CA-based design algorithm are complex structures that show a dramatic improvement with respect to traditional topology optimization. Further improvement is also achieved through the introduction of a design and analysis of computer experiments (DACE) method. Results are demonstrated in the design of various lightweight, energy-absorbing vehicle including progressively folding thin-walled structures.

About the Speaker

Andres Tovar, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at IUPUI (2011-Present). He served as a Research Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame (2008-2011) and as an Associate Professor of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at the National University of Colombia. Dr. Tovar received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. in Industrial Automation from the National University in 1995 and 2000, respectively. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Currently, Dr. Tovar is the director of the Engineering Design Research Lab and the Center for Additive Manufacturing Research at IUPUI. His main research areas include simulation-based design methodologies for large-scale, nonlinear applications in materials and mechanical components.

Hosted by Professor Jami Shah