Lightweight Vehicle Structural Design with Advanced Steel Grades and Profiles

In the recent decades, the vehicle lighweighting problem has been addressed through various methodologies by different researchers and industries. Significant effort has been made recently to develop lightweight structural solutions by employing state-of-the-art and emerging materials, manufacturing processes and technologies. The presented research aimed to investigate the possibility of designing vehicle lightweight structures using advanced steel grades and novel structural profiles developed by industry by integrating smart design and manufacturing solutions. A case study was developed in the presented paper on a freight wagon structure. The structural stress analysis of the new lightweight design has been carried out through Finite Element Analysis (FEA) for validating the proposed solutions. The FEA considered the standard loading scenarios, taking into account both the static and dynamic operational loads, and the results were evaluated against the traditional design of a similar benchmark homologated vehicle. The results demonstrate that novel steel products can be successfully employed for designing sustainable and feasible lightweight vehicle structures.