For the pedestrian tests, free-flying pedestrian head, upper and lower leg impactors are propelled against the vehicle front end. The vehicle must absorb these pedestrian impact energies by means of a 'pedestrian-friendly soft nose' with sufficient deformation space to ensure acceptable injury values. The 'pedestrian-friendly soft nose' design must also fulfill other vehicle requirements, e.g. insurance classification, panel buckling strength, polishing stiffness, high speed crash and hood slam tests. The deformation space required for pedestrian protection is a challenge to achieve with current styling philosophies. During vehicle development, all these loadcases and requirements must be balanced to produce the best possible vehicle, subject to the constraints of timing, available resources and reliable technology. The Opel ZAFIRA II, launched in spring 2005, is General Motors' first car worldwide to provide a 'soft-nose design' to comply with the new legal requirements in Japan and Europe Phase l. In the Opel ZAFIRA II, specially developed passive deformation elements absorb impactor energies. Other components are designed to collapse in a controlled manner to decrease stiffness and increase deformation space. The light-weight thin steel hood enables decreased acceleration values for the head, together with homogeneous hood stiffness. In the lower bumper area, a stiff spoiler improves the lower leg kinematics by reducing knee bending. Another benefits of the system: 1. Low front end damage. 2. Minimized effect of pedestrian protection on insurance classification. 3. Reduced risk of radiator leckage. 4. Reduced spare part and labour costs. 5. Simplified repair after crash. 6. Improved insurance classification.
Opel Zafira pedestrian protection development
2006
24 Seiten, 20 Bilder, 2 Tabellen
Conference paper
English
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