Frontal Vehicular Crash Energy Management Using Analytical Model in Multiple Conditions

Abstract

When it comes to frontal vehicular crash development, matching the stiffness of the front-end structures reasonably, i.e., impact energy management, can effectively improve the safety of the vehicle. A multi-condition analytical model for a frontal vehicular crash is constructed by a three-dimensional decomposition theory. In the analytical model, the spring is used to express the equivalent stiffness of the local energy absorption space at the front-end structure. Then based on the analytical model, the dynamic responses and evaluation indexes of the vehicle in MPDB and SOB conditions are derived with the input of the crash pulse decomposition scheme. Comparing the actual vehicle crash data and the calculation results of the proposed solution method, the error is less than 15%, which verifies validity of the modeling and the accuracy of the solution. Finally, based on the solution method in the MPDB and the SOB conditions, the sensitivities of the crash pulse decomposition scheme to evaluation indexes are analyzed to obtain qualitative rules which guide crash energy management. This research reveals the energy absorption principle of the front-end structure during the frontal impact process, and provides an effective optimization method to manage the multiple conditions of the vehicle crash energy such as the FRB (frontal rigid barrier), the MPDB (mobile progressive deformable barrier), and the SOB (small overlap barrier).