Structural topology optimization and thermal performance analysis of a recreational vehicle compartment skeleton

Recreational vehicle (RV) compartments must balance structural safety, mass, and thermal performance. This study integrates finite element analysis, density-based topology optimization, and representative-module transient heat-transfer analysis for a wood-aluminum RV compartment skeleton. Five operating conditions were evaluated: horizontal static loading, lateral bending, ultimate torsion, emergency braking, and emergency turning. Among four retained-density fractions, 0.6 was selected for manufacturable reconstruction on the basis of structural continuity and material-retention considerations. After reconstruction and reanalysis, the largest aluminum stress shown by the five load cases was 70.05 MPa, corresponding to 52.7% of the 133 MPa yield strength, and the largest timber stress was 11.91 MPa relative to the 25 MPa equivalent screening value. The timber-skeleton mass decreased by 12.7%, global compliance decreased by 3.2%, the reciprocal-compliance stiffness index increased by 3.3%, and the normalized mass-specific stiffness index increased by 18.3%. In the thermal modules, replacing selected timber regions with polyurethane increased the simulated interior-surface temperature by 2.36°C–4.92°C after 5000 s under the prescribed boundary conditions. Numerical consistency was assessed through element-quality screening, a one-dimensional thermal-resistance check, and qualitative comparison with published numerical studies. The proposed workflow supports comparative RV compartment design screening under the stated modeling assumptions.