Structural component testing is essential for the development process to have an early knowledge of the real world behaviour of critical structural components in crash load cases. The objective of this work is to show the development for a self-sufficient structural component test bench, which can be used for different side impact crash load cases and can reflect the dynamic behaviour, which current approaches are not able.
An existing basic system is used, which includes pneumatic cylinders with a controlled hydraulic brake and was developed for non-structural deformable applications only (mainly occupant assessments). The system is extended with a force-distance control. The method contains the analysis of a whole vehicle FEM simulation to develop a methodology for controlled force transmission with the pneumatic cylinders for a structural component test bench.
The results of the simulation analysis provide the necessary and realizable pulses for the controlled pneumatic cylinders and the positioning of the cylinders. The applicability is shown and the good correlation of the acceleration between test and simulation is demonstrated.
This new approach considers the dynamic behaviour and is hence more complex and time-consuming as other approaches. Nevertheless the methodology is universally applicable for different side impact load cases and vehicles.
The main advantages of this new approach are to reflect the dynamic behaviour on a self-sufficient system. The methodology is easy to apply in other load cases and vehicles. Moreover it is possible to increase the prediction of FEM simulations, based on the results from the component test bench.