Performance Evaluation of Safety Belt Anchorages: A Correlation Study between Laboratory Experiments and FE Models

Safety belts play a very important role in restraining the occupants in a collision, thereby reducing occupant injuries/ fatalities. Strength of the safety belt anchorages are being evaluated by the passenger car manufacturers as per ECE R14/FMVSS 210. Since 2002, evaluations of safety belt anchorages have become mandatory in India. With increasing pressure to cut the design cycle time, manufacturers are focused on Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) for faster design and validation. The results of a CAE simulation largely depends on the user input and model accuracy. Hence a need arises for establishing a credible correlation between the laboratory test results and the CAE simulation results. This paper discusses such a correlation exercise carried out for safety belt anchorage testing through anchorage deformation mapping (ADM) and floor deformation mapping (FDM). The paper also discusses the different parameters like loading device positions, load application angle that might affect the results of the tests.