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Inclusion of Crashworthiness in Concept Design
Technical Paper
856090
Sector:
Language:
English
Abstract
A side impact study carried out on a particular vehicle has been
described and used as a case study to represent a methodology for
incorporating side crashworthiness in a new vehicle concept design.
In the automotive design environment, it has proved difficult to
include side crashworthiness satisfactorily in the initial stages
of the passenger car design. Lack of vehicle data at such a stage
does not allow detailed finite element analysis. It is, however,
possible to suggest the required collapse properties for individual
components within the structure so that, through a coarse finite
element idealization, a design for crashworthiness can be carried
out. The crash properties of the structure can be arrived at by
parametric studies of individual components that are absorbing the
major portion of the crash energy.
This paper describes a methodology that, as a tool, can be used
at the start of a vehicle program enabling the side impact
performance to be monitored continuously and thus the structure to
be designed in the most efficient way for a specified level of side
crashworthiness. This has major advantages over current methods
where a late finite element analysis or a late crash test is the
first indication of how well a vehicle meets a specified standard
and, if unsatisfactory, the necessary structural modifications are
normally costly and result in inefficiencies in design and
manufacturing processing.