Crashworthiness Optimization for a Two-Layered Front Rail Considering Front Oblique Impact

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with the crashworthiness design of the front rail on a vehicle chassis frame structure considering uncertain crash directions. The front rail, as a typical thin-walled structure, is sensitive to the loading direction for crashworthiness requirements. Multi-step multi-domain optimization method was applied to obtain a new single-layered front rail (SFR) which has better adaptability to crash loading directions. To further improve the front rail crashworthiness, a two-layered front rail (TFR) is proposed. Response surface method is conducted to pursue the optimal thickness pair of the two-layered front rail. Numerical simulations are carried out with Altair/Hypermesh and LS-DYNA to compare the crashworthiness performances of the standard rectangle front rail, SFR and TFR. The results show that TFR keeps the same adaptability of loading directions as SFR meanwhile it can absorb more crash energy during front angle impacts.

• Periodical: Applied Mechanics and Materials (Volumes 365-366)
• Pages: 3-13
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.365-366.3
• Online since: August 2013
• Authors: Si Bo Hu, Yi Ding, Jing Ru Bao, Ping Hu
• Keywords: Crashworthiness, Front Angel Impact, Front Rail, Topology Optimization

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