Abstract
Automotive structural optimization has seen remarkable progress in recent years, and is now recognized as a practical design tool. The ingredients of a structural optimization computer code include finite element analysis, sensitivity analysis, and optimization. Each of these are now available, but are seldom contained in a single computer code. Notably, sensitivity analysis must often be calculated as a post- processing operation to the finite elemen analysis. These various aspects of structural optimization are discussed, with emphasis on sensitivity calculations. Examples are given to demonstrate the present state of the art.