Citation

Wu SR. Int. J. Veh. Des. 2003; 32(1-2): 142-157.

Affiliation

Dept. of Safety Research and Development, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, MI 48124, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, Inderscience Publishers)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Component lateral impact is one of the important dynamic impact modes. A trapezoidal section under lateral impact by a rigid barrier and a component with trapezoidal cross section under lateral impact by a rigid cylinder are simulated using explicit finite element method. Two modeling approaches are used to generate the finite element meshes at the corner area formed in the manufacturing process, one with a sharp corner and another with a curved surface. Comparisons of deformation patterns and energy absorption computed from these two modeling approaches as well as coarse mesh and fine mesh are presented. Design of Experiments (DoE) is exercised to identify the main design parameters that affect the results more significantly.