Novel Collaborative Design Method for Lightweight Optimization Design of Vehicle Load-Bearing Parts

The design of new energy vehicle load-bearing structural components using traditional experience may lead to low material utilization efficiency. This makes it difficult to reduce the quality, or material shortage, which will increase the number of product design iterations and design cycle. Fortunately, the increasingly mature structural topology optimization technology can effectively solve this problem, and can provide a structural basic feature with high material utilization efficiency for parts according to the structural optimization objective. In addition, the rapid development of special casting technology makes it easier to process parts with complex shapes. Herein, a collaborative design method combining structural topology optimization design, material lightweight design and squeeze casting process was proposed to realize the lightweight of new energy vehicle load-bearing structural parts more effectively. The collaborative design method was applied to the steering knuckle design of a vehicle, and the results show that the method has a significant lightweight effect and can obtain the aluminum alloy steering knuckle with better quality.