Abstract
A method for the early concept phase is proposed, which is aimed at limiting the financial and performance-related risks when designing a carbon fibre composite automotive body structure. The method manages the structural requirements imposed on the complete body structure and analyses the suitability of different carbon fibre material systems and processes. It also studies whether a high level of material diversity is desirable and the way in which to identify the optimal partition of the body structure from a material system and manufacturing process selection point of view. Furthermore, since composite materials include both laminated materials and quasi-isotropic materials, an approach is presented that enables the comparison of these materials variants during conceptual material selection. A case study exemplifies the method and the results show that, in spite of the cost-sensitive nature of the automotive industry, utilization of the maximum performance of these expensive composite materials is more important than efforts to achieve a rapid manufacturing process.
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