Topological optimization with manufacturing constraints of a car's seat rails - weight reduction and safety target maintenance

Nowadays, vehicles are getting lighter and lighter to lower as much as possible the fuel consumption and meet the emissions demands. Furthermore, the reduction in mass has surely benefits on the performances and, especially among the supercar market, this is an important factor to be considered. In a competitive field, such as the automotive one, every component of the vehicle may have the potential to be lightened. The objective of this master’s thesis work is to investigate the seat rails of a supercar and try to diminish their weight, while maintaining the safety structural target and the energy absorption capacity. Starting from the original design, four load cases have been performed to validate the virtual model. As further step, topology optimization has been carried out. Taking the optimization results as a reference, a new design concept has been proposed and validated. Topology optimization is a powerful tool that gives a great quantity of ideas for innovative designs. Once the optimization tools have provided the rough outcomes, the engineer comes into play. Its task, by means of his knowledge and experience and considering the manufacturing constraints, is to conceive a product that is suitable for the market. In this work, it has been found a lighter seat rails structure, obtainable by milling machining, and a comparison between the original and the new design has been performed.