As automobile safety is one of the most important factors in designing car body structures, estimating the crash response of structures is essential in planning and designing. In this paper, we present such an analytical technique, capable of predicting the crash responses, force-deflection curve, and deformation shape of structural components, up to a 200 or 300mm large deformation, with reasonable CPU time and sufficient accuracy.
In the present method a finite difference formulation is used to solve motion equations. It takes the local deformation of the cross sections due to buckling into account. And we explain these theoratical issues and present a comparision between analytical results and experimental data.
The present method can be used with the “lumped-mass method” to predict the automotive collision response, i.e., total deformation, and cabin deformations of automobiles. This is shown by examples.