ADAPTIVE LIGHTWEIGHT STRUCTURAL DESIGN FRAMEWORK FOR ALUMINIUM TRAILER PLATFORMS USING MULTI-OBJECTIVE FINITE ELEMENT OPTIMIZATION AND MANUFACTURABILITY CONSTRAINTS

Abstract

Adaptive lightweight design of aluminum trailer platforms is technically significant, as road-load requirements, payload, stiffness, fatigue, buckling, and manufacturability requirements often conflict. The review critically summarizes the published journal literature concerning multi-objective finite element optimization, manufacturing-oriented topology optimization, joining of aluminum, stress/buckling control and lightweight vehicle-related structural design. The literature review demonstrates that effective lightweight designs were not necessarily achieved by minimizing weight, but rather by considering the following factors: load-path continuity, minimum member size, weld access, structural feasibility of the trailer platform, interaction between the deck and the trailer platform, fatigue-prone details and the avoidance of local buckling. Existing research is well-grounded in the computational aspects, but is scattered over vehicle crashworthiness, aerospace topology optimization, additive manufacturing limitations, and general aluminum fabrication research. Validation of trailers, multi-objective optimization considering fatigue and the rules of manufacture of welded and extruded aluminum remain insufficiently developed. Such a framework should therefore integrate finite element fidelity, surrogate model adaptation, manufacturable geometry production, and production-based constraint screening.