Multidisciplinary design optimization for front structure of an electric car body-in-white based on improved Collaborative Optimization method

In this investigation, an Improved Collaborative Optimization (ICO) method based Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) framework for front structure of an electric car body-in-white (BIW) is presented. ICO method based on 1-norm and dynamic flabby coefficient, which shows relatively high efficiency and accuracy, is first proposed here and prepared to conduct MDO in this work. Finite element analysis (FEA) results of the baseline design for an integral battery electric car body structure show that its front part needs to be optimized designed in the consideration of full-lap frontal crashworthiness. Selecting the thicknesses of 5 components, with global mass and free basic frequency constraints, a multidisciplinary size optimization problem is implemented using both ICO and standard CO methods combined with OLHS technique, metamodel and SQL algorithm. Optimal scheme based on ICO method is preferred and selected for its better performance compared with result calculated by standard CO method. The energy absorption of redesigned front body structure is finally raised by 14.2 % with 55 iterations.