Load acquisition and damage assessment of a vehicle bracket component

Vehicle bracket components, such as engine motor mounts, transmission mounts, and differential pinion nose damper brackets, are widely used in the automotive industry for structural support and noise reduction. Load acquisition is often required for design and weight optimisation, while damage assessment is used to assure the reliability of a product. This paper presents a complete process for load acquisition and reliability–based damage assessment, with which engineers may evaluate the strength of the prototype in an up–front design stage. Design of Experiments (DOE) is incorporated to minimise the number of strain gages used in a matrix–formed multiaxial load transducer. The effect of driver variability on the damage levels is also demonstrated.