Optimization Study of a Parametric Vehicle Bumper Subsystem Under Multiple Load Cases

This paper deals with the design and optimization of a vehicle bumper subsystem, which is a key scenario for vehicle component design. More than ever before, the automotive industry operates in a highly competitive environment. Manufacturers must deal with competitive pressure and with conflicting demands from customers and regulatory bodies regarding the vehicle functional performance and the environmental and societal impact, which forces them to develop products of increasing quality in even shorter time. As a result, bumper suppliers are under pressure to increasingly limit the weight, while meeting all relevant design targets for crashworthiness and safety. In the bumper design process, the structural crashworthiness performance as the key attribute taken into account, mainly through the Allianz crash repair test, but also through alternative tests such as the impact to pole test. The structural bumper model is created, parameterizing its geometric and sectional properties. A Design of Experiments (DOE) strategy is adopted to efficiently identify the most important design parameters. Subsequently, an optimization is performed on efficient Response Surface Models (RSM), in order to minimize the vehicle bumper weight, while meeting all design targets.