Lightweight design of auto-body structure by topology optimisation based on level set method

This paper presents a new approach for study on lightweight of auto-body structure based on level set method for structural topology optimization. Such level set method can easily and naturally handle topology changes of complex multi-porous continuous structures which vastly exist in auto-body design and play a large effect in vehicle performance, such as crashworthiness. A well-founded numerical process is presented to implement the structural optimization process with several close to 2D structures of auto-body and make them to converging to an optimum weight solution with satisfying specified constraints such as the deformation of structure, energy-absorbing ratio of crashworthiness etc. The conclusion is that using the level set method for structural topology optimization in lightweight design of auto-body structure can get more benefit and advantages than other lightweight techniques, such as size, shape optimization or material researching.