Lightweight optimization of passenger car seat frame based on grey relational analysis and optimized coefficient of variation.

At present, the safety performance and lightweight of passenger car seat has become more and more important. The multi-objective lightweight optimization of the passenger car seat frame is carried out in this study. The novelty of this study is that we propose a detailed optimization design method and a design process in lightweight optimization for passenger car seat. In more detail, firstly, according to the ratio of energy absorption to mass method, the lightweight design components are selected. Secondly, different seat safety tests are conducted to optimize the corresponding components by considering both continuous thickness variables and discrete material variables. Thirdly, the strain index, the displacement of key points, the material cost, and the total mass of the components which need to be optimized (opti-components) are considered objectives. After that, the grey relational analysis (GRA) is adopted to optimize the material thickness scheme of the lightweight design components. Besides, the optimized coefficient of variation (OCV) method is applied to evaluate the corresponding weighting values of the objectives. Meanwhile, the availability of the grey relational analysis and optimized coefficient of variation (GRA&OCV) is assessed through comparing advantages among the method of GRA&OCV, the grey relational analysis and coefficient of variation (GRA&CV), the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution and coefficient of variation (TOPSIS&CV), as well as the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution and optimized coefficient of variation (TOPSIS&OCV) in the multi-objective lightweight optimization of passenger car seat frame. As a result, the total material cost and mass of the passenger car seat frame are reduced by 17.00% and by 2.08 kg (12.46%), respectively, with guaranteed vibrational and safety performance. Therefore, GRA&OCV can be effectively applied in multi-objective lightweight optimization of the passenger car seat frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]