A material and gauge thickness sensitivity analysis on the NVH and crashworthiness of automotive instrument panel support

This paper provides a finite element analysis of the effects of using alternative materials and gauge thickness on the weight and structural performance of the VN127 instrument panel support. Two types of analyses were performed, NVH and crashworthiness. The NVH analysis was used to determine the structure's natural frequencies, whereas the crashworthiness analysis was used to examine the structure's crash behavior under two different impact conditions. The materials used in this study included mild steel, aluminum and magnesium alloys. The thickness of the structure was varied from 0% to 40%, in increments of 10%. The results of different models were compared with the baseline model, i.e., the mild steel model with nominal thickness. It was found that by replacing mild steel with aluminum alloys, and increasing the gauge thickness of the structure by 40%, the NVH and crashworthiness performance of the structure was equivalent to the baseline model. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.