Open Access

ARTICLE

Advancements in the Automotive Durability Process

by Mark Pompetzki¹, Brian Dabell¹, Xiaobin Lin²

1 HBM-nCode Products, 26555 Evergreen Road, Suite 700, Southfield, MI 48076, USA
2 HBM-nCode Products, Unit 401, Building 9, No. 99 TianZhou Road, Shanghai 200233, P. R. China

Structural Durability & Health Monitoring 2010, 6(2), 69-76. https://doi.org/10.3970/sdhm.2010.006.069

Abstract

Structural integrity in terms of automotive durability is a detailed process that incorporates many technical areas. The current durability process for automotive applications involves understanding operational load inputs, the stresses and strains caused and the response of the material, performing fatigue tests, calculating fatigue life and interpreting results. There are many variations on this process depending on the application, materials, available information, methods, etc. This paper presents a general approach for the durability process in automotive applications and highlights a number of new advancements. These advancements include understanding the service operating load conditions through improved usage based monitoring, characterizing new materials together with their associated damage models, enhancing and automating data manipulation through straightforward, consistent and rapid process based analysis, creating test profiles for random loading and accelerating CAE based durability analysis. The impact and importance of the advancements is illustrated by reference to each part of the durability process as well as the process itself.

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