Generative Design of Performance Automotive Wheels and Suspension Uprights

Autodesk

Mentors:  Adrian Lew (Stanford), Daniel Noviello (Autodesk)

Goal:

Apply brand new Autodesk generative design technologies to design a wheel and suspension upright while validating new cyclic symmetry constraints, and new improved additive manufacturing constraints. The wheel and upright must be lightweight, able to support vehicle loads and be manufacturable.

Problem:

Topology optimization of automotive components is an effective way to reduce mass and material usage, however it does not account for things like manufacturability, cost, and aesthetics. These are generally addressed separately and often lead to further optimization and design iterations. Autodesk generative design software (Fusion 360) provides the capability to synthesize component geometries that automatically account for manufacturing, cost, and visual requirements. In this project, we apply generative design technologies to generate a vast solution space for the wheel and suspension upright of the a mono car. This requires rigorous definition of the problem using loads, boundary conditions, and manufacturing constraints. In order to design balanced rotating structures, we need a cyclic structure that is enforced by a new cyclic symmetry boundary condition. We also need to verify that our manufacturing constraints (namely additive manufacturing constraint) produced buildable geometries. Once the solution space is generated, we need to navigate, and make trade-offs to select the best design, and subsequently verify the design with detailed Finite Element Models (FEM).