There has been concern for the crash safety of one kind of minibus in China because of its short, flat front-end structure. The minibus did not have enough crushable space for a frontal impact, and it had, in fact, failed to pass the Chinese vehicle safety regulations in frontal impact tests. This paper presents a method to improve the crashworthiness and occupant safety of this minibus. The design method, consisting of component tests and finite element analysis, focused both on the crashworthiness of the vehicle structure and occupant safety. An optimised design was obtained. The improved structural design has been implemented for the minibus. The time and cost of the redesign has been lowered substantially with the help of component tests and finite element analyses. We have shown that these procedures were effective for improving the crash safety of this minibus for the Chinese market. The five-step redesign process worked well to achieve the design goals. The redesigned minibus has now passed all of the safety requirements specified in the CMVDR 294. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study: The mild steel thin-walled top-hat section rail was a good choice for the front frame of the minibus because it allowed maximum energy absorption with deformation within an allowable range. The crush initiators and the strengthened ribs played a key role in adjusting the collapse behaviour of the thin-walled top-hat mild steel rail. The five-step design procedure provides a systems engineering approach to the redesign of the minibus. It optimised the design processes for the minibus. With the help of CAE model simulations, parametric studies were carried out effectively. The number of full vehicle sled test was reduced as was the time and cost associated with the design process.
Improving design for crashworthiness of a minibus
Redesign eines Minivans zur Verbesserung des Aufprallenergieabsorptionsvermögens
International Journal of Vehicle Safety (Online) ; 1 , 1-3 ; 35-51
2005
17 Seiten, 24 Bilder, 3 Tabellen, 14 Quellen
Article (Journal)
English
Anwendung im Fahrzeugbau , Kleinbus , Finite-Elemente-Methode , Fahrzeugsicherheit , Aufprallenergieabsorptionsvermögen , Aufprall , Sicherheitseinrichtung (Fahrzeuginsasse) , Dimensionierung , Entwurfstechnik , Entwurf , Fahrzeugerprobung , Auslegung (Dimension) , Produktentwurf , Konstruktionsmethodik , Deformation , Prozessoptimierung , CAD/CAM , Modellsimulation , Karosserie , Sicherheitsvorschrift
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