The structural design of current vehicle front units has to
account for an increasing number of constraints: improvement of
real-world performance in safety for occupants and others road
users, perform in the various ratings and meet future regulations.
Therefore the structural car design is the result of a compromise
between pedestrian protection, car-to-car compatibility and self-
protection.
In addition to these safety considerations, reparability
constraints are becoming more and more demanding and intrusive
toward the other safety requirements. The need to reduce emissions
through fuel consumption control requires a reduction of the
overall body weight which leads usually to more difficulties to
achieve a correct structural behavior.
Some of these constraints lead to solutions which are in
opposition and in general to unsatisfactory compromises. It is
suggested to develop a more comprehensive approach in order to
better take into account both safety requirements and
reparability.
This paper describes the different relevant factors for each
safety and reparability requirement, proposes compromise among them
in terms of structural aspects. It will also show that it is often
difficult to find an answer which satisfies all these aspects.