A strut tower brace is one of the components that can improve the driving stability of a vehicle. This component has received steady attention for a long time due to its affordable price and easy installation. However, strut tower braces sold in the market have different structures. Moreover, most of them do not contain sufficient information related to safety or stability. Thus, this study aimed to analyze and compare structural behaviors of strut tower braces having various body shapes under bending and compressive scenarios. For this purpose, this study selected six representative models in the market and calculated structural behaviors (stress and deformation) using finite element analysis. Results revealed the body shape had a decisive effect not only on the durability of the strut tower brace, but also on the safety and stability of the vehicle. Among the six models tested, the model having a body shape with a single-axis form utilizing a wide rectangular cross-sectional showed the best bending and compressive performances. This study also confirmed that bending and compressive performances could be simultaneously improved depending on body shape.

Total hip replacement is a representative treatment for avascular necrosis of the femoral head. However, the stress shielding caused by the replacement induces dissociation of the artificial hip joint and various complications. Many studies have tried to explore the stress shielding but, most studies have been conducted at macro level and not at micro level. Thus, this study aimed to quantitatively analyze the structural behavior of the proximal femur according to total hip replacement at the micro level to explore the stress shielding. For this purpose, this study selected the artificial hip joint of the single wedge type and implanted the joint into a proximal femur that has a high resolution of 50 μm. Then the structural behavior of the implanted femur was analyzed by comparing that of the intact femur under three daily activity loads. As a result, the high possibility was confirmed that the stress shielding will occur in both cortical and cancellous bones under the one-legged stance movements. Additionally, it was discovered that the cancellous bone had a considerably lesser chance of adducting at an angle similar to the neck shaft angle of an artificial hip joint.

Electric kickboards provide personal mobility with a simple structure and easy operation. With these advantages, the number of users is increasing annually. However, as the number of users of electric kickboards increases, related accidents are also increasing. To prevent accidents, this study proposes the topological optimization of an electric kickboard connecting part to improve structural strength during a front collision. The results confirmed that as the volume fraction increased, the structure connecting the board and the bottom of the handle support changed to a toroidal shape, thereby lowering the maximum stress and improving the uniformity of the stress distribution. In addition, the topological optimization was safer than the connecting parts of two typical electric kickboards sold in the Korean market. These findings can contribute to improving the safety and optimizing the design direction of electric kickboards.