Chassis & Body
Various research activities relating to the complete vehicle and in particular to the chassis and body of the vehicle are pooled under the “Chassis and Body” topic. Here, solutions are developed in the fields of safety, energy efficiency, driving behavior, and user friendliness, including NVH (vibration and noise).
It is focused on interactions of individual components in the vehicle as a mechatronic system, on driver-vehicle interaction as well as on the vehicle and its mobility environment. Methods are developed to handle systems interactions in the vehicle development
process. Such methods require in-depth studies of the component behavior and
physical mechanisms. Complexity of the total vehicle system is reflected by the large number of issues covered: General aspects like vehicle concepts, operation strategies, and energy management are studied as are the interaction between tires and road surface or concepts for chassis, suspension, damping, steering, brakes, electric / electronic architectures, light, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Research also focuses on innovative lightweight materials and their use in vehicle development or lightweight construction. Thanks to their comprehensive, application-
oriented work, the institutes working under the topic of “Chassis and Body” are attractive cooperation and research partners of industry. Multidisciplinary cooperation results in a systems competence that is hardly matched by other, also international universities in terms of depth and comprehensiveness.
System Properties:
Security, Energy Efficiency, NVH, Drivability & User-Friendliness
Systeme:
Full Vehicle, Car Body, Chassis, Tire, Driving Strategy, Driver Assistance Systems, E/E, Light Systems, Driving Surface, Driver
System Development:
Conceptual Design, Analysis, Synthesis, Optimization, Cost-efficient Methods for Vehicle Development, Technology Assessment, Light Weight Construction
Affiliated Institutes:
Institute of Vehicle System Technology (FAST)
Light Technology Institute (LTI)
Institute for Applied Materials (IAM-WK)
www.iam.kit.edu
Institute of Engineering Mechanics (ITM)
Institute of Mechanics (IFM)
www.ifm.kit.edu
Building Science Group