Design and Analysis of a Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Structural Chassis Component for a EU Long Distance Truck

Abstract: A Scania S-series front chassis module feasibility study is carried out to investigate the potential gains and losses by changing to a composite material system. The existing front chassis module comprises multiple steel, sheet metal and plastic components. The design space is fixed by the location of adjacent components in the current design. A new methodology is put together on the basis of "The GAP Methodology: A new way to design composite structures" by F. Neveu et al. (2019)[1] for facilitating the complex nature of multivariable composite structures design. By applying the methodology a set of hand sketches based on vari-ous geometry classes and applicable manufacturing processes can be created for a technical screening, where one concept is brought forward for detailed analysis. The concept design is refined by the use of the surface modeller tool in CATIA V5 and a structural analysis is undertaken using the finite element method software for composites ANSYS ACP. The composite laminate layup is designed by using aerospace design rules as guidelines for the given material system. The proposed design solution satisfies the design requirements and improves the benchmark Scania Chassis module by lowering the amount of components with about 30%, has a recommended metal to composite joining method, reduces the mass by around 40% (53.5% excluded the suggested joining method) and has a safety factor to material failure strains. The feasibility study demonstrates that the proposed methodology and design of the new composite chassis component is plausible using a simplified analysis.