Contemporary Crash Analysis as a Building Block in Holistic Multidisciplinary Structural Analysis

The trend in the previous years showed that an ideal product is not obtained as a sum of development results of several separated disciplines but rather as a result of a holistic multidisciplinary CAE approach. In the course of the whole component development process it is necessary to consider all functions of an individual component equivalent to their importance in the system as a whole, in order to achieve both a technical and a financial optimum.

The predictability and the accuracy of an individual computational method have to be regarded against the background of the entire simulation process. A continuative CAE-standard and a harmonious interaction between the different computational disciplines promise more success than focusing specifically on individual topics and thereby neglecting the “bigger picture”.

This awareness provided the basis for a decision to change the entire crash simulation software to ABAQUS. This transition took place in a four year migration period and resulted in a uniform CAE software environment. This paper gives a factual description of the activities, technical challenges and achievements experienced in the course of the now successfully completed software migration project.

The resulting prospects for structural analysis will be discussed with an emphasis on interior trims and side protection. To what extent a multi-physics problem solving approach is necessary in order to assure a high level of predictability and also the synergies to derive thereof is demonstrated using an airbag as an example