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Automotive manufacturers have intensified their efforts to decrease the vehicle drag coefficients and weight in order to optimize fuel consumption, in all light commercial vehicles segments. The sump guard is an important component to be evaluated; it has significant influence in drag and in the total weight of vehicles. The present work intends to evaluate the sump guard component replacing steel - more commonly used in the Brazilian market - for polymeric materials. A complete study of feasibility under the light of the aerodynamics and structural analysis is made. It also considered the benefits of applying polymers instead of steel. In the structural analysis, an impact and its consequences over the integrity of the component are verified using the finite analysis method. As for the aerodynamics, a complete car in a wind tunnel is replicated, using the finite volume analysis, to verify the influence of drag and pressure coefficients over the sump guard.

Considering the competitiveness of current automotive market, the search for low cost solutions that fulfill quality demands becomes essential to product development processes. A great issue in engine mount design consists of obtaining optimized geometrical shapes, maintaining component quality as well as complying with project requirements. In this work, an analysis is proposed to optimize the engine mount differential side of a commercial vehicle; all project steps for this component are also presented. A comparison between the try-error method and the topologic optimization method (TOM) was made, both using the finite-element method (FEM). The TOM has proved to be a powerful tool for optimizing geometry in a variety of engineering problems. Afterwards, the resulting geometry of TOM will undergo a yet more accurate optimization process, using the engine mount geometrical shapes as design variables.

During the service life, the impacts of vehicle against potholes result in damage for the wheel and suspension components. Knowing the internal forces generated in the suspension components during this event would helpful to design the critical components. Measurement of these loads in physical test is more costly and not feasible for new designs. There are several virtual tools and methods available to predict the loads during this event. Using the ABAQUS FE solver, the non-linear dynamic behavior could be captured accurately during the impact. The tire model plays an important role during this event by absorbing energy during the impact. The CAE tire model is validated with some physical tests results and it is used in the vehicle pothole impact simulation. In vehicle pothole physical test, the force and acceleration measurement are taken and compared with the CAE results. The effect of the tire pressure variations and the vehicle speed at pothole impact is also studied.