Search Results

Plastic automotive lamp assemblies are vented by a variety of methods to reduce the likelihood of condensation forming in the lamp and to prevent water ingress lamp warranty returns. Previously, it has been shown that the humidity in a vented automotive lamp can be described empirically by a decreasing exponential (i.e. decay). It was also shown that this formula by applying Fick’s Law of Diffusion, particularly the exponential constant (k), can be related to basic physical properties of the lamp system. Specifically, the exponential constant is a ratio of the product of a characteristic cross-section area of the vent and the permeability of water vapor over the product of the lamp volume and a characteristic length of the vent. This description was shown to be less accurate at time t greater than 30 minutes and additional details of the vented lamp system were proposed for better fit to the experimental data.

An effort to integrate a structural optimization process into the carbon canister bracket design is presented to demonstrate the benefits of an upfront Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) driven design. Structural optimization methods - including topology, shape, and size optimization - are used to develop the injection molded plastic carbon canister bracket. Furthermore, the incorporation of the Knowledge Base Engineering (KBE) features in the design process not only accelerates the design process but also ease manufacturing feasibility. Even though topology optimization has been widely used to explore the initial topological designs of different products, it is still a great challenge to explore shell like structure designs with 3D solid design package spaces using topology optimization method.

This paper highlights the application of design optimization in reducing product manufacturing cost without compromising product performance. By using a topology optimization method, the manufacturing cost of a clam shell has been reduced by approximately one-third, while maintaining the NVH performance of the steering column that is connected to the instrument panel (IP) through the clam shell. Two different optimization approaches and two different topological weld deployments are investigated. It is found that a fully-deployed seam weld approach with automatic optimization provides the best design results.