| Summary: | The research presented in this licentiate thesis has been carried out at the advanced body engineering group at Volvo Car Corporation (VCC). The research has been done while enrolled at the Division of Computer Aided Design (CAD) at Luleå University of Technology. The research was initiated by VCC as part of the VCC industrial PhD program and in close co-operation with the CAD division at Luleå University of Technology. The research has been conducted within the ENDREA national graduate program. This licentiate thesis deals with the development of complex mechanical structures, from concept to detail design, as applied to car bodies. The role of concepts has been examined and a standardised language based on three organ types (beams, joints and panels) has been made to break down and quantify concept performance. Concept selection has been addressed with care, not to impose an off-the-shelf method, but to identify the needs of the particular situation [Paper A, Bylund, Fredricson and Thompson 02]. Efforts have been made to clarify how computer tools and analysis methods are used in product development in industry today. It has been found that the design and the analysis activities are separated. In order to speed up the development, a concurrent engineering approach is needed. This calls for integration of computer support and analysis in the development process. Based on the above findings, a new development process for car bodies has been developed, reaching from concept to detail design. A Property Based Model (PBM), [Paper B, Bylund and Eriksson 01], is built up for each concept, and represents the mechanical and spatial properties of the body concept. The PBM is constructed from organs, [Hubka, Andreasen and Eder 88], which represent requirements at a local level. The chosen organs for the car body are beams, joints and panels, [Paper B, Bylund and Eriksson]. An optimisation procedure is used to normalise the alternative concept PBM models with respect to key global requirements, e.g. global stiffness, ...
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