Development of a single subfloor plate for a light cargo vehicle in sandwich construction

Abstract

The Institute for Vehicle Concepts of the German Aerospace Center is developing new concepts for very light vehicles. One of these concepts is a light freight vehicle for urban logistics. The complete chassis is designed as a sandwich structure. Challenges in using these sandwich structures are the introduction of loads and joining technology. Additionally, the structure should be easy and efficient to produce. This leads to the question, if it is possible to use a single sandwich subfloor plate as the load-bearing structure of this vehicle. As a solution, the implementation of through-the-thickness inserts, which are mounted in the production process of the sandwich structure are proposed. Validation with simulations will be presented and the production process of such structures will be illustrated.