A study of the effect of elastic instability on stiffness-based gauge sensitivity indices for vehicle body structure assessment

Gauge sensitivity indices are a family of techniques for assessing the effect of thickness changes on automotive structural performance. This paper studies the effect of elastic instability on stiffness-based gauge sensitivity indices and demonstrates that as gauge reduction proceeds, the onset of elastic instability results in instantaneous increase in gauges sensitivity. Analysis results are interpreted and validated by a series of numerical examples. The work concludes with application case studies illustrating application of gauge sensitivity for assessing and managing elastic instability present within a light duty truck cab.