Published Paper Details:

The cabin floor is one of the most important structural components in a commercial vehicle Body-in-White (BIW), contributing significantly to global stiffness, vibration control, and passenger comfort. Due to its large and thin sheet metal geometry, the cabin floor is highly susceptible to low-frequency vibration and structural resonance, which negatively affect Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) performance. Traditional stiffness improvement methods such as thickness increase and additional reinforcements often lead to increased vehicle mass and manufacturing cost. To overcome these limitations, topography optimization has emerged as an efficient Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) technique for improving stiffness through optimized bead generation without adding extra material. This review paper presents a comprehensive study of topography optimization methods applied to automotive floor structures, focusing on stiffness enhancement, natural frequency improvement, and NVH performance. Various research studies, optimization methodologies, design constraints, and commercial software tools used in topography optimization are reviewed. The study also identifies current research gaps related to commercial vehicle cabin floor applications and highlights future opportunities in vehicle-level optimization.