The importance of B-pillars in the IIHS-crash increases in comparison to other side crash tests due to the raising of the barrier. To fulfil these new requirements conventional B-pillars are composed of several deep drawn parts. As a results of this policy the tooling costs, the joining costs and the weights of the B-pillars increase. One promising way to solve this problem is a new B-pillar design, which is based on hydroforming of close-to-contour tailored tubes made of modern high-strength steels. In a joint research project, which was sponsored by the FOSTA, the Institute of Metal Forming and the Institute for Automotive Engineering Aachen developed this new concept based on numerical models covering the complete metal forming process chain including the IIHS crash test. Therefore a numerical method to simulate the process chain considering the forming history and the material failure was developed. A following optimisation of the close-to-contour Tailored Tubes showed the high potential of the process chain for B-pillars in the IIHS-crash. The optimised close-to-contour Tailored Tubes enabled a distinct reduction of the weight of the B-pillar maintaining the crash performance compared to the reference B-pillar. At the same time the costs of the process chain, calculated with the ULSAB-cost-model (Ultra Light Steel Auto Body), were similar to each other. This statement was proven virtually with the aid of the through-process simulation of the process chain with validated numerical models.
Development of a tailored, hydroformed B-pillar in consideration of the forming history
Entwicklung einer maßgeschneiderten, hydroumgeformten Mittelwandsäule unter Berücksichtigung der Formgebungsgeschichte
2008
8 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 6 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
Development of a tailored hydroformed B-pillar in consideration of the forming history
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2008
|Online Contents | 1995
Development of Hydroformed High Strength Steel Chassis Part
SAE Technical Papers | 2005
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