Citation

Silva MPT, Sio JAC, Pereira MS. Int. J. Crashworthiness 1997; 2(1): 73-90.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1533/cras.1997.0036

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A multibody based methodology is presented here for the integrated simulation of vehicle and occupants in general riding or impact situations. Natural coordinates are used to describe in a unified manner the equations of motion of the multibody system that represents both vehicle and occupant. The advantages of using this description are the simplicity of the equations obtained, the ease of integrating the actions that develop between the system components and the implicit definition of most of the kinematic constraints. The equations of motion are solved using an augmented Lagrangean formulation that stabilizes the violation of the system kinematic constraints and subsequently integrated using a predictor-corrector numerical integrator. A continuous contact/impact force model is used to describe the contact between the system components and obstacles or with other components. This model is also used to prevent that the biomechanical segments of the occupant model achieve physically unfeasible relative orientations. The methodology proposed is applied to the simulation of a vehicle rollover with a belted occupant inside which represents one of the most complex interaction between vehicle, occupant and terrain.

Language: en