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Stability and structural integrity are extremely important in the design of a vehicle. Structural foams, when used to fill body cavities and joints, can greatly improve the stiffness of the vehicle, and provide additional acoustical and structural benefits. This study involves modal testing and finite element analysis on a sports utility vehicle to understand the effect of structural foam on modal behavior. The modal analysis studies are performed on this vehicle to investigate the dynamic characteristics, joint stiffness and overall body behavior. A design of experiments (DOE) study was performed to understand how the foam's density and placement in the body influences vehicle stiffness. Prior to the design of experiments, a design sensitivity analysis (DSA) was done to identify the sensitive joints in the body structure and to minimize the number of design variables in the DOE study.

Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) method is used to predict Sound Transmission Loss (STL) of sound barrier assemblies (SBA) commonly used in automotive dashmat design. Tests are performed for dashmat plaques with and without design features, and SEA equations have been used for predicting transmission loss with acceptable accuracy below the interception (cavity resonance) frequency. For frequency range higher than interception point, the SEA software used overestimates STL. For dashmat tests with design features, test results and SEA predictions are generally agreeable.

Urethane is utilized to bond the windshield and backlite to the vehicle frame. The contribution of different modulii of glass bonding urethane adhesives on the stiffness characteristics of the vehicle is studied through finite element analysis. The modal analyses of a finite element body-in-white model with different modulii of urethanes are performed, and the analyses show that high modulus urethane makes notable contribution to the vehicle stiffness. The optimized modulus of urethane adhesive is suggested based on the analyses.