This study was carried out to evaluate structural stability of the suspended plastic pedal used in vehicles and to predict its fatigue life with the results obtained from finite element analysis. And also shape optimization was performed to reduce its weight. Structural analysis of the suspended plastic pedal was based on the evaluation tests such as static test, stiffness test, and fatigue test in the actual field, which were frequently carried out in the companies manufacturing plastic pedals. The evaluation for the plastic pedal was carried out by structural and fatigue analyses using a commercial FEA program and according to it, maximum stress and strain and fatigue life of the pedal satisfied all the requirements in the evaluation tests. The results of structural analysis of the suspended plastic pedal were used in the fatigue analysis. Fatigue test was performed to verify validity of the theoretical fatigue life of the plastic pedal. And the life by theoretical calculation was in good agreement with that by the experiment .Object function for optimizing shape of the plastic pedal is its volume, and total volume of the plastic pedal was reduced to about 11.7% through shape optimization.
