Metamodel-based lightweight design of B-pillar with TWB structure via support vector regression

Vehicle lightweight design becomes an increasingly critical issue for energy saving and environment protection nowadays. Optimum design of B-pillar is proposed by using tailor-welded blank (TWB) structure to minimize the weight under the constraints of vehicle roof crush and side impact, in which support vector regression (SVR) is used for metamodeling. It shows that prediction results fit well with simulation results at the optimal solution without compromising the crashworthiness performance, and the weight reduction of B-pillar reaches 27.64%. It also demonstrates that SVR is available for function approximation of highly nonlinear crash problems.