An Optimization and Trade-Off Process for Crashworthiness with Multiple Responses

Automotive crashworthiness design requires considering multiple impact modes which are often coupled by common design variables, such as sheet metal gauges. Together with different types of disciplinary design constraints and design variables, it is difficult to achieve an optimal design that meets all the design criteria with affordable cost. The objective of this research is to employ the advanced optimization and trade-off technologies to help engineers systematically get insight into the design space and subsequently select an optimal design. A vehicle example which considers multiple impact modes including full frontal, frontal offset, side, and rear impact is presented to demonstrate the proposed optimization and trade-off procedure.