Numerical Study of Structural and Modal Performance of Steel, Aluminium, Hybrid Jute-Polymer and CFRP for Lightweight Bus Flooring

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune, India
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology, Pune, India

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 1 July 2026

Abstract

Lightweight and structural efficient floor system is critical in enhancing the performance, fuel efficiency and the payload capacity of the modern passenger buses. This paper demonstrates a numerical exploration of the bus floor thickness optimization and efficiency in terms of metallic and composite materials under practical service loading. An SML compliant S7 bus platform (BS-VI) was taken as a reference model and a simplified ladder frame supported floor domain, which symbolizes realistic seating areas, was created in ANSYS Workbench. To simulate realistic load transfer, static structural simulations were conducted with a gravity-based passenger loading with the use of seat-support locations. Candidate materials were tested within the range of 10 to 50 mm thickness. Performance was measured in terms of the total deformation and equivalent stress. The findings imply that the thickness was a very significant factor on the stiffness response and high-modulus carbon-fiber laminates offer great reduction in weight and acceptable levels of deformation relative to traditional metallic floors. The methodology combines realistic geometry, support conditions, passenger loading, and thickness variation within a single finite element model. The results help identify lightweight, strong, and cost-effective materials for bus floor design.