Abstract

ROMERO, José L  and  QUEIPO, Nestor V. Surrogate-based optimization of a brake pedal  . Rev. Téc. Ing. Univ. Zulia [online]. 2017, vol.40, n.1, pp.11-15. ISSN 0254-0770.

Trying to avoid failure in formula SAE vehicles during competition, there is a regulation on the minimum load the brake pedal should withstand, i.e ., 2000 N. Furthermore, the use of conventional design methods and the cited load restriction may lead to potentially oversized brake pedals. In this work, the problem of interest, i.e. , minimize the brake pedal mass (M) subject to structural restrictions was systematically solved: i) defining a numerical model of a FSAE brake pedal, ii) constructing surrogate models to predict mass (M), maximum von Mises stress (Smax) and buckling load factor (fpandeo) from design of experiments and results of numerical simulations, and iii) adaptively optimizing the brake pedal mass using selected surrogates. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was demonstrated in the design of a FSAE brake pedal with eight (8) design variables (geometry) using Kriging and polynomial regression as surrogate models. The optimal design exhibits a mass of 157.5 g, representing a mass reduction in the order of 5.5 % with respect to a functional design for the same safety factor.

Keywords : FSAE brake pedal; surrogate models; surrogate based-optimization; structural analysis; buckling.