An efficient procedure for spot welds optimization in automotive structures
Résumé
In the automobile industry, two structural parts are often joined using welding spots. Both the number and their locations are critical parameters for designers and manufacturers, since the dynamic behavior of the whole structure largely depends on them. Moreover, the number of spot welds and their positions is also an important consideration for reducing manufacturing costs. In this paper, we propose to compare three energy criteria for spot weld optimization in the context of large automotive models. We assume that an over-populated spot welding distribution is given and that this nominal model satisfies the design objectives. The proposed iterative procedure then attempts to eliminate spot welds while preserving as far as possible the nominal structural behavior based both eigenfrequency and static criteria. Since the number of spots can be very large, the efficiency of the criteria which are used to remove them is a crucial point. Three energy criteria are used and compared on an industrial application in automotive context (1,000,000 degrees of freedom and 5000 spot welds).