REVIEW ARTICLE


Vehicle Front Structure Energy Absorbing Optimization in Frontal Impact



Hao Chen*, Yali Yang, Liangjie Wang
College of Automotive Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, No. 333 Longteng Road, Shanghai, Postcard: 201620, China.


© 2015 Chen et al

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the College of Automotive Engineering, Shanghai University of Engineering Science, No. 333 Longteng Road, Shanghai, Postcard: 201620, China; Tel: 86 13585901312; E-mail: pschenhao@163.com


Abstract

Energy absorption performance is one of the most important indexes in the vehicle safety during impact. Research on the car frontal structure energy performance and structure optimization was conducted in this paper. Whole vehicle model was established by HyperMesh and simulated in LS-DYNA. Simulation results indicated that modification was needed for the original structure to meet the industry requirements. Based on simplified whole vehicle model, orthogonal design optimization was implemented, including bumper cross beam material (A), bumper cross beam thickness (B), energy absorber groove distance (C), and front longitudinal beam groove number (D), with 3 levels for each factor. The best option was B3D1A3C3 which was gained by using range analysis and integrated balance method. Simulation results showed that both front and total energy absorptions were improved. The optimized structure increased front energy absorption to 51.1%, which can meet the industry requirement.

Keywords: Energy absorbing, Front structure, Optimization, Orthogonal design, Model establishment, Model verification.