Eco Design and Optimization of a Truck Suspension Arm
In modern engineering, it is expected to embed sustainability impact of products as constraints or even objectives in the design process to contribute to company’s Environmental, Social, Governance commitments or to comply with regional policies. While climate change CO2eq and energy consumption over the whole life cycle of a product reflect only a portion of the environmental impact of a product one would expect from life cycle inventory, they serve as reasonable proxies for engineers and designers to use as parameters to improve their designs and minimize impact using an optimization approach. This case study addresses the re-design of a truck suspension arm component using smart combination of material and geometry parameters, with the aim to reduce overall carbon emissions while making sure functionality and safety concerns are addressed. It consists in carrying out materials selection, geometry changes, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and optimization approaches to identify re-design options. In a final trade off analysis, several scenarios are explored, including their eco-assessment across the whole life cycle of a product. This enables us to discuss additional considerations to critically assess and improve the design recommendations. This resource uses Ansys Granta EduPack™, a teaching software for materials education, Ansys Discovery™, a 3D product simulation software, and Ansys optiSLang®, a process integration and design optimization software.
Learning Outcomes
- Understanding sustainable product design methodology
- Ability to use Ansys Granta EduPack software to carry out strategic material selection
- Ability to use Ansys Discovery software to simulate the suspension arm and carry out geometric optimization
- Awareness of the importance of life cycle thinking to understand the CO2eq emissions impact of different material and design choices
Applicable Courses
- Sustainable engineering and design
- materials selection for Eco-Design
- product design
- Sustainable engineering systems
Downloadable Content
- Case Study pdf
- simulation files