Efficient Product Development of Car Bodies Using Multi-disciplinary Optimization

The usage of multi-disciplinary optimization strategies is rendering the standard product development process (PDP) of car bodies more efficient. This is due to a holistic concept, which takes simultaneously into account all functions required for the design of the structure of a car body. Therefore parts and materials can be used to their full load bearing capacity. In the past, the true industrial applications of the multi-disciplinary optimization (MDO) have been questionable because of the high computational effort and the related long time needed for optimization. Hence in most cases, only methodological studies were realized. In the paper presented here, it is shown that more sophisticated optimization algorithms can accelerate the MDO remarkably. In addition, the automatization of pre- and post-processing plays an important role for the integration of the MDO-method into real life product developments. Completed with a method to control the distribution of the computational loads on the processors, the MDO was applied successfully for the first time at BMW in the real PDP.