A new methodology for crash sensitive vehicle structures has been developed to be used during the early stage of the Product Development Process (PDP). By frontloading significant and simplified CAE simulations and the use of stochastic optimization methods in conjunction with highly parametric CAD models, new concepts can be quickly identified and evaluated based on reliable product insight.
Vehicle crashboxes have been chosen for verification of the methodology. An analysis of different but comparable vehicles showed a large variety of designs although they all absorb the energy of low speed crashes within a velocity of up to 15km/h.
A powerful optimization model with a parametric geometry engine, a crash-solver and suitable optimization software, used within a batch process, has been established.
The optimal results for one particular crashbox concept are presented to demonstrate the methodology and the benefit of the approach. Due to the relocation of the variant calculation at early stage, the optimization potential can be used extensively. The method is promising to efficiently investigate manifold variants of crashbox structures during the concept phase.