Structural Design of a Front Lower Control Arm Considering Durability

Recently developed automotive components are getting lighter providing a higher fuel efficiency and performance. Following the current trend, this study proposes a structural optimization method for the lower control arm installed at the front side of a Vehicle. Lightweight design of lower control arm can be achieved through design and material technology. In this research, the shape of lower control arm was determined by applying the optimization technology and aluminum was selected as a steel-substitute material. Strength performance is the most important design requirement in the structural design of a control arm. This study considers the static strength in the optimization process. For the optimum design, the durability analysis is performed to predict its fatigue life. In this study, the kriging interpolation method is adopted to obtain the minimum weight satisfying the strength constraint. Optimum designs are obtained by the in-house program, EXCEL-Kriging. Also, based on the optimum model obtained for the static strength, the optimization of Index of Fatigue Durability is carried out to get th optimum fatigue performance.