| In recent years many studies proved that the adoption of polymer composites represents an effective solution to reduce the weight of vehicles.;In this context, the goal of this study is the design of a rear suspension cradle made of composite material, with particular attention to aspects such as recyclability and high volume production of the component.;Starting from the CAD model of the existing aluminum part, a simplified shape that represented it was designed and FEM analysis was conducted using the software ABAQUS; materials, geometry and fiber orientation were changed in order to obtain a composite model with the same performance as the aluminum model but with lower weight. The performance of the composite and aluminum models were compared. In addition, a manufacturing process and a method of recycling for the optimal composite model solution were provided. |
