Analysis of the joint structure of the vehicle body by condensed joint matrix method

It is often necessary that the joint characteristics should be determined i n the early stage of the vehicle body design. The researches on identificat ion of joints in a vehicle body have been performed until the recent year. In this study, the joint characteristics of vehicle structure were expresse d as the condensed matrix forms from the full joint stiffness matrix. The c ondensed joint stiffness matrix was applied to typical T-type and Edge-type joints, and the usefulness was confirmed. In addition, it was applied to t he real center pillar model and the full vehicle body in order to validate the practical application.