Designing for Offset Crash: A Trade-Off in Constraints

This paper discusses the challenges, a crash engineer is faced with, when designing for offset crash and the more severe intrusion constraints to be satisfied in offset crash when compared with full frontal crash. Excessive intrusion and higher risk of injuries are some of the tougher constraints to be satisfied when designing for offset crash. Structural reinforcement has been used to control intrusion in a soft offset impact without raising any concern of exceeding passenger compartment pulse requirement. However, the same reinforcement can stiffen the structure, limit the crash distance, and possibly exceed the desired occupant G-values when designing for full frontal crash. These constraints make it more challenging to seek an optimal design that maximizes the energy absorbing capability of the crash zones, minimizes intrusion, and keeps occupant G-values within desired limits.

Results of a computer model for a front end structure under 40% offset crash are presented. The discussion of these results along with conclusions and recommendations for offset crash design are included.