Thomas Vietor

• Prof. Dr.-Ing.
• Head of Department at Technische Universität Braunschweig

The increasing number and complexity of cyber–physical systems in vehicles necessitate a rigorous approach to identifying functional safety and cybersecurity hazards during the concept phase of product development. This study establishes a systematic method for identifying safety and security requirements for E/E components in the automotive sector...

The automobile is evolving from a mechanically dominated to a cyber-physical, software-defined system. Future complex functionalities, such as autonomous driving, require multidisciplinary, interconnected systems. Hence, interdisciplinary architecture development based on Systems Engineering principles becomes essential, leading to a methodology fo...

The focus of this research is on supporting a resource-efficient economy to minimize post-consumer plastic waste by incorporating secondary materials into existing product design and thereby closing material cycles in plastic usage. In addition to lower primary resource demand and lower energy consumption in the production phase, the potential oppo...

To expedite the development of the infrastructural expansion for hydrogen applications, the research project “THEWA” was founded. Within this project, the development of hydrogen-refueling stations is being advanced so that the hydrogen strategy for mobility in Germany can move forward. One development point of the project is to develop an evaluati...

dditive manufacturing (AM) of components using material extrusion (MEX) offers the potential for the integration of functions through the use of multi-material design, such as sensors, actuators, energy storage, and electrical connections. However, there is a significant gap in the availability of electrical composite properties, which is essential...

Additive manufacturing provides new possibilities in product design compared to traditional manufacturing processes. Particularly additive material extrusion offers the freedom to combine multiple materials in a single component without additional steps. However, combining multiple materials often leads to reduced adhesion, which can hinder the cre...

The complexity offered by additive material extrusion (MEX) presents new opportunities for novel design, especially with regard to multi-material components. However, this design freedom has heretofore only been scarcely used thus stifling innovation. One reason for this development is the complicated nature of adhesion at the interface of multi-ma...

Continuous fiber-reinforced material extrusion is an emerging additive manufacturing process that builds components layer by layer by extruding a continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic strand. This novel manufacturing process combines the benefits of additive manufacturing with the mechanical properties and lightweight potential of composite mat...

Battery cells experience volume changes due to intercalation and ageing processes, which may pose a challenge when integrating cells into a battery module. This study presents an innovative, numerical model, which spatially resolved predicts the time-dependent, overall mechanical behaviour of battery modules caused by volume changes in built-in cel...

The introduction of the European Green Deal has triggered various legislative projects that will require product manufacturers inside and outside the European Union (EU) to ensure compliance with the new regulatory framework. As this is a complex task we present a methodology that manufacturers can use to derive a strategic focus for future product...

In the development of innovative and high-performance products, design expertise is a critical factor. Nevertheless, novel manufacturing processes often frequently lack an accessible comprehensive knowledge base for product developers. To tackle this deficiency in the context of emerging additive manufacturing processes, substantial design knowledg...

The increased complexity of development projects surpass the capabilities of existing methods. While Model Based Systems Engineering pursues technically holistic approaches to realize complex products, aspects of organization as well as risk management, are still considered separately. The identification and management of risks are crucial in order...

This contribution to the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)” delves into the critical role of Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG 17), “Partnership for the Goals,” in fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to further circular economy objectives. Aiming to address the existing research focus on isolated technical aspects within th...

The integration of continuous fibers into additively manufactured plastic components greatly enhances their mechanical properties. Nonetheless, a challenge lies in the limited adaptability of these properties to specific loading scenarios. To address this issue, present research aims to exploit the hybridization of additively manufactured composite...

Recent advancements in fiber reinforced additive manufacturing leverage the piezoresistivity of continuous carbon fibers. This effect enables the fabrication of structural components with inherent piezoresistive properties suitable for load measurement or structural monitoring. These are achieved without necessitating additional manufacturing or as...

The ever-increasing complexity and design variability of modern lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and battery systems prevent their cost-effective and efficient recycling. As a consequence, the generation of recyclates to competitive prices compared to virgin materials is currently impossible. This is troublesome as the extraction of the resulting deman...

Der EFRE-Innovationsverbund autoMoVe beschäftigte sich mit der Entwicklung autonomer, dynamisch konfigurierbarer Fahrzeugkonzepte. Hierzu haben sich Wissenschaftler*innen der TU Braunschweig, der TU Clausthal sowie der Ostfalia Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften zusammengeschlossen. Während der Projektlaufzeit wurden Methoden und Werkzeuge fü...

This research paper focuses on integrating circular economy principles into a system model for the automotive sector. The central research question relates how an existing vehicle system model can be supplemented with characteristics of a reuse strategy. For this purpose, the so-called CE model is presented, which can be seen as an addition to a...

The use of autonomous technologies for last-mile logistics has the potential to reduce operation costs, cut emissions from the delivery sector, improve safety levels in communities, and provide efficient delivery solutions in areas which experience access regulations. Unfortunately, the implementation of real-life, economically-sustainable, and saf...

Additive manufacturing of components using the material extrusion (MEX) of thermoplastics enables the integration of multiple materials into a single part. This can include functional structures, such as electrically conductive ones. The resulting functional structure properties depend on the process parameters along the entire manufacturing chain....

Trends such as autonomous driving, non-driving related activities and digitalisation are contributing to a revolution in vehicle concept design. An aspect of this is the consideration of future use cases in shaping vehicle architectures. Future user scenarios can help identify relevant use cases, from which the user needs and system requirements ca...

Finite element (FE) simulations can be used both in the early product development phase to evaluate the performance of developed components as well as in later stages to verify the reliability of functions and components that would otherwise require a large number of physical prototype tests. This requires calibrated material cards that are capable...

Due to an expanding number of mechatronic functionalities in modern technical products, the proportion of software and electronic components is also increasing. As a result, the products are developed by different engineering domains in complex development processes. To handle the growing complexity, Systems Engineering (SE) is increasingly importa...

The mechatronic engineering industry is confronted with the challenge of increasing product complexity. This results in extensive projects for the development of mechatronic systems, which have to be planned and monitored within the context of project management. The high dynamic on the market requires a flexible adaptability of the products. Agil...

According to current automotive trends, future mobility solutions will be characterized by a high degree of automation, interconnectivity and -modality, and locally emission-free powertrains. New usage models also based on an increased willingness from people to share a vehicle or the journey itself will enable highly flexible and innovative concep...

The current work experimentally determined how the initial resistance and gauge factor in additively manufactured piezoresistive sensors are affected by the material, design, and process parameters. This was achieved through the tensile testing of sensors manufactured with different infill angles, layer heights, and sensor thicknesses using two con...

Additive manufacturing (AM) enables new design freedoms that are often not fully utilized for complexity and price reasons. Lattice structures are one use case of AM that, despite being frequently utilized in lightweight design, is not commonly used in other areas. Bonding low adhesion materials through interlocking lattice structures uses the desi...

Recent research efforts have highlighted the potential of hybrid composites in the context of additive manufacturing. The use of hybrid composites can lead to an enhanced adaptability of the mechanical properties to the specific loading case. Furthermore, the hybridization of multiple fiber materials can result in positive hybrid effects such as in...

Early consideration of the future market environment of a new product favors its success. Therefore, the future environment and requirements derived from this must be considered in the development of a product. Foresight provides several instruments for identifying different potential future developments, according to the time horizon referenced in...

Increasing product requirements in the mechanical engineering industry and efforts to reduce time-to-market demand highly accurate and resource-efficient finite element simulations. The required parameter calibration of the material models is becoming increasingly challenging with regard to the growing variety of available materials. Besides the cl...

Advances in process and material technology of Additive Manufacturing (AM) and the design freedom resulting from the layer-by-layer build-up principle provide new possibilities in product design. In order to utilize the resulting AM potentials in product development in a focused and effective manner and thus to increase the overall product performa...

Recently, the use of prismatic cells in electric vehicles has increased significantly. Unlike the cylindrical or pouch format, the prismatic cell format has not been sufficiently investigated. In this study, quasi-static mechanical tests are performed on prismatic cells. The tests include a cylindrical and a hemispherical impactor that mechanically...

Besides the various opportunities of multi-material design, such as weight reduction or function integration, additional challenges occur within the design process. On the one hand, the rising complexity of multi-material body parts requires an additional assistance for the designer. On the other hand, it is of great importance to estimate the deve...

A proven method to enhance the mechanical properties of additively manufactured plastic parts is the embedding of continuous fibers. Due to its great flexibility, continuous fiber-reinforced material extrusion allows fiber strands to be deposited along optimized paths. Nevertheless, the fibers have so far been embedded in the parts contour-based or...

The presented paper describes a shape optimization workflow using Bayesian strategies. It is applied to a novel automotive axle system consisting of leaf springs made from glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRP). Besides the primary objectives of cost and mass reduction, the assembly has to meet multiple technical constraints with respect to various...

An existing challenge in the use of continuous fiber reinforcements in additively manufactured parts is the limited availability of suitable fiber materials. This leads to a reduced adaptability of the mechanical properties to the load case. The increased design freedom of additive manufacturing allows the flexible deposition of fiber strands at de...

Zukünftige Fahrzeuge werden nach aktuellen Trends zu urteilen durch einen hohen Automatisierungsgrad, eine starke Vernetzung untereinander und einen lokal emissionsfreien Antriebsstrang gekennzeichnet sein. Neue Nutzungsmodelle, die sich auf eine erhöhte Bereitschaft zum Teilen von Fahrzeug oder der Fahrt selbst stützen, erfordern hochflexible inno...

Platform and modular strategies are widely used in the automotive industry to realize extensive product portfolios efficiently and cost-effectively. The objective is to provide large external product variance with minimal internal variance. In this context, a conflict arises between the desired economic synergy and sufficient product differentiatio...

Advances in manufacturing technologies and computational engineering are key enablers for optimized designs necessary for product performance improvements. Amongst other manufacturing technologies, particularly Additive Manufacturing (AM) is pushing the envelope of feasible design complexity challenging design engineers as well as their Computer-Ai...

Multi-functional design has high potential to overcome e.g. increasing weight and costs of products. However, the possible solution space for integrating functions is hardly manageable. This paper presents an approach to assist in the identification of multi-functional approaches. Therefore, hybrid design principles are developed that are combinabl...

Through optimal design of the human machine interfaces, especially the hand-handle contact surface, high usability of hand-operated products can be achieved. The complexity of the user specific hand anthropometry has to be considered in the design of load transfer handles. Use case optimized, personalized, and adaptively morphing handles aim at ful...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables innovative product designs. One promising research field is AM of integrated electrically structures, e.g. heating panels using Joule effect. A mayor challenge in designing heating panels using AM is the dependency of its resultant resistivity from material, process and geometry parameters. The goal-oriented desi...

Offering product-service systems instead of technical products is one way for companies to achieve a competitive advantage and stay viable in the future. This paper presents a workshop series created in cooperation between a manufacturer of wood processing production lines and a research institute for engineering design to develop PSS concepts for...

In this publication, a test rig for dynamic compression tests of battery modules is examined. It is investigated as to how much the mechanical properties of the test rig influence the measured force and displacement signal of experiments. The starting point of the investigations are observations from a dynamic compression test with a battery module...

In this publication, a test rig for dynamic compression tests of battery modules is examined. It is investigated as to how much the mechanical properties of the test rig influence the measured force and displacement signal of experiments. The starting point of the investigations are observations from a dynamic compression test with a battery module...

The automation of vehicles, the electrifcation of the powertrain, as well as vehicle connectivity, and new usage concepts, are considered to be some of the major mobility trends in the future of automotive development. [1] With an increasing degree of automation, human drivers increasingly hand over the tasks for longitudinal and lateral control of...

Disruptive innovations (DI) have the potential to fundamentally change markets and their power relations: Specifically, established companies are confronted with the threat of being forced out of the market by DI. At the same time, companies also have the opportunity to control the market’s development by developing DI themselves. This raises the q...

This paper focuses on a simulation platform to model and simulate the energy consumption of a building with multiple zones under the influence of daily and seasonal environmental factors, as well as the impact of the HVAC system and human activities. By using model-based requirements engineering (MBRE), the requirements of the simulation platform a...

Nowadays, product development times are constantly decreasing, while the requirements for the products themselves increased significantly in the last decade. Hence, manufacturers use Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Finite-Element (FE) Methods to develop better products in shorter times. Shape optimization offers great potential to improve many high...

A neural network (NN)-based method is presented in this paper which allows the identification of parameters for material cards used in Finite Element simulations. Contrary to the conventionally used computationally intensive material parameter identification (MPI) by numerical optimization with internal or commercial software, a machine learning (M...

Technical systems are becoming increasingly complex due to technological progress, changing customer needs and (market-specific) constraints, e.g. addressing the eco-friendliness of new products. This leads to an increasing complexity of the overall development of these systems. One way of dealing with this complexity during the development is the...

This paper presents a density-based shape optimization using an interface motion scheme as in level set methods. The aim is to generate optimal material distributions with high-quality interfaces within a uniform geometric representation for topology and shape optimization. This reduces the effort for post-processing and facilitates an automated co...

The increase of resource efficiency of products is inevitable due to growing scarcity of resources and climate change. Circular Economy addresses this by circulating products, e.g. by refurbishment. When offering refurbished products, one big hurdle for their successful implementation is acceptance. As recent research has shown, different factors i...

The Circular Economy (CE) aims at keeping products in circles to reduce their environmental impact. To implement CE, the products themselves need to be sustainable, and they need to be used and handled sustainably, e.g., by reuse, sharing, and circulation. Mobile apps can help users understand the environmental impacts of the use and consumption of...

The automotive industry is undergoing a huge change, as the global trends digitalization, sustainability and urbanization are further accelerating. Cars are evolving from mechanical dominated systems to complex interdisciplinary systems. New market demands and complex functionalities include all engineering disciplines throughout multiple subsys...

By estimating manufacturing costs and times at an early design stage, design of a part and production planning can be improved to significantly reduce product costs. Therefore, a concept for automated estimation of costs and times based on similarity analysis is introduced. This concept is based on a semantic and machine-interpretable representatio...

This study is about a method for evaluating specific product complexity. In this context, an efficient and scalable method for the development of a specific complexity assessment of highly complex products is presented. Furthermore, existing evaluation methods are analysed according to effort and benefit, thus showing the research gap and the need...

Nowadays considering trends such as digitalization, automated driving as well as electric mobility in products in automotive development processes is a major challenge, which has led to an enormous increase in the number of product functions of technical systems. However, the recognized processes in automotive development are strongly component-ori...

Die Mobilitätsbedarfe verändern sich kontinuierlich und mit ihnen auch die Anforderungen an Mobilitätsträger und umgebende Infrastrukturen. Technologische Fortschritte, bspw. im Bereich der Digitalisierung, ermöglichen zurzeit ein Überdenken des gesamten Mobilitätssystems. Die Vielfalt alternativer Zukunftsszenarien wächst ebenfalls schnell und ein...

Die Mobilitätsbedarfe verändern sich kontinuierlich und mit ihnen auch die Anforderungen an Mobilitätsträger und umgebende Infrastrukturen. Technologische Fortschritte, bspw. im Bereich der Digitalisierung, ermöglichen zurzeit ein Überdenken des gesamten Mobilitätssystems. Die Vielfalt alternativer Zukunftsszenarien wächst ebenfalls schnell und ein...

This paper describes an interactive approach for analyzing the impact of the enhanced design freedom in additive manufacturing (AM) combined with topology optimization. The main goal is to identify weight saving potentials on a holistic vehicle level and evaluate the influence on vehicle performance by means of lap time savings. Therefore lightweig...

The Incremental Manufacturing approach is based on a production concept, where products are assembled from mass-produced parts and finalized by additive and subtractive manufacturing steps. This approach promises economic variant production but also leads to increased complexity in product design and process planning due to the enhanced degree of f...

Additive manufacturing (AM) typically is more costly than traditional manufacturing processes, but it opens new opportunities for design that are often not fully utilized because of its price. Bonding complex additively manufactured structures to conventional parts is a way of reducing cost, while maintaining design freedom. However, not all polyme...

The approach of functional integration has the potential to solve challenges regarding lightweight design and resource efficiency since the number of parts and therefore the weight and needed installation space can be reduced. One important step in developing integrative concepts is the pre-selection of suitable functions or components. Previous me...

With regard to the currently perceptible technological, social and economic change, also known as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” or “Internet of Things”, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular are confronted with various obstacles in their attempt of keeping pace. For example, there is a lack of orientation of which I4.0 techno...

In addition to the development and research of battery-driven vehicles, a high research effort in the field of hydrogen technology can currently be observed. Various research and strategy initiatives relating to hydrogen are being initiated and pursued with considerable commitment worldwide. A significant expansion of the hydrogen filling station n...

Die numerische Berechnung komplexer akustischer Felder erreicht heute eine hohe Prognosequalität, selbst dann, wenn beispielsweise poröse Absorber das Feld beeinflussen. Die Berücksichtigung poröser Materialien, beispielsweise in einer FEM-Berechnung, erfordert ein detailliertes Materialmodell. Eine wesentliche Herausforderung liegt dabei in der Er...

Today, vehicle development is already in a process of substantial transformation. Mobility trends can be derived from global megatrends and have a significant influence on the requirements of the developed vehicles. The sociological, technological, economic, ecological, and political developments can be determined by using the scenario technique. T...

Zukünftige Fahrzeuge werden nach aktuellen Trends zu urteilen durch einen hohen Automatisierungsgrad, eine starke Vernetzung untereinander und einen lokal emissionsfreien Antriebsstrang gekennzeichnet sein. Neue Nutzungsmodelle, die sich auf eine erhöhte Bereitschaft zum Teilen von Fahrzeug und/oder Fahrt stützen, erfordern hochflexible innovative...

Markets and industries are currently characterized by high dynamics, leading to diverse and volatile customer requirements. This complex market environment fosters the appearance of innovations with high novelty and uncertainty. As a result, the probability of disruptive innovations (DI) increases, which have the potential to change markets in the...

During the product development process, the engineer needs to design mechanical structures regarding package and design surface restrictions. Accordingly, the use of package definitions and design surfaces results in a constraining volume. Shape optimization algorithms can be applied for component or assembly optimization. By variation and setting...

The subject of "Industry 4.0" is characterised by scepticism and profound discussions. Despite the existing reticence, the economy is currently facing a wide range of challenges, which can be attributed to fundamental technological and social change. Due to lower monetary resources and a lack of know-how, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) i...

Eine Vergrößerung der Vielfalt additiver Fertigungsprozesse zeigt sich als überaus begünstigend für die Ideengenerierung und Konstruktion innovativer Bauteile mit verbesserter Materialkomplexität. Die verfügbaren Prozesse zur additiven Verarbeitung von hochschmelzenden Materialien beschränken sich momentan hauptsächlich auf Laserauftragschweißen, V...

The mechanical integrity of a lithium ion battery cell can be evaluated using finite element (FE) simulation techniques. In this study, different FE modelling approaches including heterogeneous, homogeneous, hybrid and sandwich methods are presented and analysed. The basic capabilities of the FE-methods and their suitability to simulate a real mech...

The development of a dynamically configurable autonomous vehicle is subject to a high degree of complexity. This complexity is further intensified by usually domain-specific thinking and document-based development, leading to difficulties in managing the development processes. Therefore, there is a need for manageable and cross-domain approaches in...

Automotive manufacturers are facing highly dynamic customer demands and shorter life cycles forcing them to continuously upgrade their vehicles by releasing new versions with innovative features. Accordingly, manufacturers have to determine well-conceived release-strategies in order to upgrade existing vehicle models in their portfolio. The influen...

Mobility requirements are changing, and with them the demands on mobility carriers and infrastructures in terms of flexibility, reliability, cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency and environmental compatibility. Because of increasing digitization in recent years, new solution approaches and business models are coming into question, for example, thr...

Additive manufacturing, especially material extrusion (MEX), has received a lot of attention recently. The reasons for this are the numerous advantages compared to conventional manufacturing processes, which result in various new possibilities for product development and -design. By applying material layer by layer, parts with complex, load-path op...

Citation: Sanchez Ruelas, J.G.; Sahin, T.; Vietor, T. Development of Decision-Model and Strategies for Allaying Biased Choices in Design and Development Processes. J. Open Innov. Technol. Mark. Complex. 2021, 7, 118. https://doi. Abstract: The design and development processes are full of decisions. Ranging from simple and straightforward to complex...

Additive manufacturing (AM), widely known as 3D-printing, builds parts by adding material in a layer-by-layer process. This tool-less procedure enables the manufacturing of porous sound absorbers with defined geometric features, however, the connection of the acoustic behavior and the material’s micro-scale structure is only known for special cases...

Innovative vehicle concepts have been developed in the past years in the automotive sector , including alternative drive systems such as hybrid and battery electric vehicles, so as to meet the environmental targets and cope with the increasingly stringent emissions regulations. The preferred hybridizing technology is lithium-ion battery, thanks to...

Aktuelle gesellschaftliche Megatrends wie die Urbanisierung, führen zu erdrückende Ver-kehrsdichten in den Städten, während der rapid wachsende KEP-Markt (KEP: Kurier-, Ex-press- und Paketdienste) die Situation zusätzlich verschärft. Hieraus ergeben sich neue Anforderungen und Rahmenbedingungen an zukünftige Mobilitätsträger. Um die Mobilitätsbedür...

Multi-material additive manufacturing provides new design freedom for integration of functions and opens new possibilities in innovative product design due to local material variations. In particular, material extrusion (MEX) allows for combination of different industrial-grade thermoplastic materials to enhance the functionality of a product by in...