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The Low Mass Vehicle (LMV) that is a minivan designed to compete with the Toyota Echo but with 30% less mass has been used for the research in the Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems. To reduce the aerodynamic forces on the LMV, the present authors have developed a rear spoiler of a new type based on the principles of fluid dynamics and through numerical computations. This new spoiler has been developed in such a way that the aerodynamic drag as well as lift on vehicles having a bluff back can be reduced when the new spoiler is attached to them. Numerical simulations show that the aerodynamic drag and lift on the LMV moving at 30 m/s reduce by 5 % and more than 100 %, respectively, when the new spoiler is attached to it.

This paper documents the design and verification process of a modular spaceframe platform for SUV, hatchback, sedan and station wagon conducted at the Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems (IAVS) of the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The goal of the project was to show the feasibility of a cost effective family of vehicles for low volume markets and reduce the body structure mass while meeting current industry and federal standards. For low volume markets the cost of using spaceframe construction is more economical compared to the traditional unibody construction. Cost is further reduced because a family of low volume vehicles would share a lot of common parts. Also, spaceframes can use extruded sections joint by cast nodes, which are both inexpensive. The results discussed in this paper show the CAE work done on beam models for a family of vehicles including, sedan, station wagon, hatchback and SUV.