APPLICATION OF FINITE STRIP METHOD IN VEHICLE DESIGN PART 1 OF 2: LINEAR BUCKLING ANALYSIS OF THIN WALLED STRUCTURES

In automotive body design use of AHSS (advanced high strength steel) has been rapidly increasing in the past few years. AHSS which has higher yield strength offers opportunity to reduce gage and hence weight reduction of the body structure. However, it is also known that for the fiat thin walled members, as the stress increases and gage gets thinner, the tendency of local instability such as buckling, increases. In this presentation we will discuss finite strip method to estimate linear buckling load for thin walled sections. The finite strip method is simpler version of finite element method, it can be applied on 2D sections, requires limited computer resources and little training to use. Cross section studies based on finite strip method are compared with traditional section analysis as well as finite element method. The results indicates that, the finite strip method is equivalent to finite element method in predicting local buckling of prismatic structures, which is better estimates of the section load capacity compared current methods in CATIA based on fully plastic stress distributions.