On the use of an FE based energy flow post-processing method for vehicle structural dynamic analysis

This paper presents an energy flow post-processing tool for structural dynamic analysis which is based on conventional dynamic finite element (FE) analysis. Based on the global dynamic behaviour of a system and on local subcomponent descriptions, the energy flow between the various components can be predicted, as can the energy dissipation within individual subcomponents. This information can assist a design engineer in making design modifications and holds potential in optimising high-frequency energy based models, such as statistical energy analysis (SEA) models. The developed approach is implemented using a commercially available FE code and is validated for both simple academic cases and for an industrial vehicle body-in-white.