Shape Optimization for the Stability and Lightweighting of the Upper Sliding Rail of an Automotive Monopost Seat

The commercialization and the subsequent widespread adoption of self-driving electric cars have allowed environmentally friendly vehicles to have more interior space than traditional gas-powered vehicles, which has, in turn, led to a growing demand for space utilization of vehicle interiors. A monopost seat is an innovative, lightweight seat designed to maximize space utilization under the seat, with the insertion of a monopost columnar structure between the monopost seat guide rail and the floorboard. However, compared to standard seats, a monopost seat leaves room for improvement when it comes to safety considerations. In our previous study, dynamic simulations of a monopost seat were performed using LS-DYNA. The results revealed that the upper slide rail was the most vulnerable component. In this study, optimal designs were generated to make the upper sliding rail more stable and lighter. To this end, PIAnO, a comprehensive optimal design program, was employed to combine the orthogonal array design of experiments with metamodel-based optimal design methods to deliver the best possible model. A series of simulations confirmed the safety of the new model, which was a significantly improved version of the existing design in terms of stability and weight.