Automotive Panel with Alternating Protrusions for Balanced Rigidity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing panels for automobiles face a trade-off between achieving lightweight design and maintaining rigidity, with previous designs either prioritizing torsional rigidity at the expense of flexural rigidity or vice versa, due to the arrangement and shape of recesses and protrusions.
Innovation Solution
A panel design featuring alternating rows and columns of first and second rectangular regions, where the first regions have fully-covering protrusions and the second regions have partially-covering protrusions with integrated reinforcing protrusions, ensuring uniform in-plane shear stress and increased second moment of area for balanced torsional and flexural rigidity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If the plate thickness is reduced to achieve lightweight design, then the weight is reduced, but the rigidity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The panel is segmented into multiple rectangular regions with alternating recesses and protrusions, creating a grid-like structure that distributes mechanical loads across multiple segments. This segmentation allows the thin panel to maintain rigidity through structural configuration rather than material thickness.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a two-dimensional flat panel to a three-dimensional structure by adding recesses and protrusions in the thickness direction. This dimensional change creates depth and complexity in the structure, significantly improving rigidity without proportionally increasing weight.
2Strength
If recesses and protrusions are arranged in rows and columns with alternating pattern, then torsional rigidity is improved, but flexural rigidity becomes unbalanced and anisotropic
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces asymmetry by making the protrusions rectangular rather than square, with different dimensions in the row and column directions. This asymmetric geometry compensates for the anisotropic stress distribution, balancing the rigidity characteristics between different loading directions while maintaining the alternating row-column pattern.
3Weight of moving object
If the recesses and protrusions are shaped to improve rigidity with minimum depth, then weight is reduced, but the rigidity enhancement effect is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The invention optimizes the geometric parameters of the recesses and protrusions, specifically setting the depth-to-width ratio and the relative dimensions of rectangular protrusions. By carefully selecting these parameters, the structure achieves maximum rigidity enhancement for the given depth constraint, balancing weight reduction with structural performance.
Data Source
AI summary
A panel comprises a reinforcing unit including a plurality of first rectangular regions and a plurality of second rectangular regions. The first and second rectangular regions are in rows and columns, the first and second rectangular regions in each row being arranged alternately and the first and second rectangular regions in each column being arranged alternately. Each of the first rectangular regions includes a fully-covering first protrusion protruding in a first direction perpendicular to an imaginary reference plane and having a flat top surface. Each of the second rectangular regions includes a partially-covering second protrusion protruding in a second direction opposite to the first direction and having a flat top surface. A partially-covering reinforcing protrusion extends between opposite sides and protrudes in the first direction and having a flat top surface. The top surface of the reinforcing protrusion forms one face together with the top surface of the first protrusion.