AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY

UNIT - I
DESIGN OF VEHICLE BODY FOR
SAFETY
Safety engineers design and manufacture vehicle body structures
to withstand static and dynamic service loads encountered during the
vehicle life cycle.
Exterior shapes provide low aerodynamic drag coefficient.
The interior provides adequate space to comfortably accommodate its
occupants.
The vehicle body together with the suspension is designed to minimize road
vibrations and aerodynamic noise transfer to the occupants.
In addition, the vehicle structure is designed to maintain its integrity and
provide adequate protection in survivable crashes.
 Among these constraints are materials and energy availability, safety
regulations, economics, competition, engineering technology and
manufacturing capabilities.
Current car body structures and light trucks include two categories:
body-over-frame structure or unit-body structure.
The latter designation including space-frame structures.
 The body-over frame structure of a passenger car or a sport utility
vehicle consists of a vehicle body,frame and front sheet metal.
A light duty truck consists of a frame, cab, and box. The vehicle body
provides most of the vehicle rigidity in bending and in torsion. In
addition, it provides a specifically designed occupant cell to minimize
injury in the event of crash.
In frontal impact, the frame and front sheet metal absorb most of the
crash energy by plastic deformation. The three structural modules are
bolted together to form the vehiclestructure.
The vehicle body is attached to the frame by shock absorbing body
mounts, designed to isolate from high frequency vibrations.
 First used in the aerospace industry in the early 1950s, the term
crashworthiness
provided a measure of the ability of a structure and any of its
components to protect the occupants in survivable crashes. Similarly,
in the automotive industry,
crashworthiness connotes a measure of the vehicles structural ability
to plastically deform and yet maintain a sufficient survival space for its
occupants in crashes involving reasonable deceleration loads.
Restraint systems and occupant packaging can provide additional
protection to reduce severe injuries and fatalities.
Crashworthiness evaluation is ascertained by a combination of tests
and analytical methods.
 Crashworthiness Goals

Designers create vehicles to provide occupant protection by maintaining integrity

of the passenger compartment and by simultaneously controlling the crash
deceleration pulse to fall below the upper limit of human tolerance.
A crash deceleration pulse with an early peak in time and a gradual decay is more
beneficial for protection of a restrained occupant.
Therefore, the goal of crashworthiness is an optimized vehicle structure that can
absorb the crash energy by controlled vehicle deformations while maintaining
adequate space so that the residual crash energy can be managed by the restraint
systems to minimize crash loads transfer to the vehicle occupants.
 Real world vehicle collisions are unique dynamic events where the
vehicle may collide with another vehicle of similar or different shape,
stiffness and mass; or it may collide with another stationary object such
as a tree, utility pole or bridge abutment.
Generally, for the purpose of body development, safety experts classify
vehicle collisions as frontal, side, rear or rollover crashes.
Further, the vehicle may experience a single impact or multiple impacts.
Moreover, vehicle crashes occur over a wide range of speeds, persisting
for a fraction of a second, such as when a vehicle hits a tree, or for few
seconds as in rollover events.
These factors illustrate some of the complex tasks involved in the design
of vehicle structures to satisfy crashworthiness constraints for all collision
scenarios.
 Accident reconstruction and analysis of motor vehicle crashes provide
important information regarding the safety performance of vehicle in
the traffic environment.
These methods do not provide sufficient quantitative information
necessary for vehicle design, such as deceleration pulse, occupant
kinematics or occupant loads.
So, design engineers rely on a combination of standard laboratory
tests,proving ground evaluations, and analysis to achieve safety
objectives.
Currently vehicle crashworthiness is evaluated in four distinct modes:
frontal, side, rear and rollover crashes.
Crashworthiness Requirements

The vehicle structure should be sufficiently stiff in bending and torsion for
proper ride and handling.
It should minimize high frequency fore-aft vibrations that give rise to
harshness.
In addition, the structure should yield a deceleration pulse that satisfies the
following requirements for a range of occupant sizes, ages, and crash speeds
for both genders:
Deformable, yet stiff, front structure with crumple zones to absorb the crash
kinetic energy resulting from frontal collisions by plastic deformation and
prevent intrusion into the occupant compartment,
Especially in case of offset crashes and collisions with narrow objects such as
trees. Short vehicle front ends, driven by styling considerations, present a
challenging task to the crashworthiness engineer.
 Deformable rear structure to maintain integrity of the rear passenger
compartment and protect the fuel tank.
Properly designed side structures and doors to minimize intrusion in side
impact and prevent doors from opening due to crash loads.
Strong roof structure for rollover protection.
Properly designed restraint systems that work in harmony with the
vehicle structure to provide the occupant with optimal ride down and
protection in different interior spaces and trims.
Accommodate various chassis designs for different power train locations
and drive configurations.
Crashworthiness Tests

There are three categories of tests:

component tests,
sled tests, and full-scale barrier impacts
The component test determines the dynamic and/or quasi-static
response to loading of an isolated component.
These component tests are crucial in identifying the crush mode and
energy absorption capacity.
Understanding their performance is also essential to the development
of prototype substructures and mathematical models.
 In a sled test, engineers use a vehicle buck representing the passenger
compartment with all or some of its interior components such as the seat,
instrument panel,steering system, seat belts, and air bags.
Mechanical surrogates of humans (anthropomorphic test devices - dummies)
or cadaver subjects are seated in the buck to simulate a driver and/or passenger
and subjected to dynamic loads, similar to a vehicle deceleration-time pulse, to
evaluate the occupant response in a frontal impact or side impact.
The primary objective of a sled test is evaluation of the restraints. This is
accomplished by high-speed photography of the dummy kinematics.
In addition, various sensors located in the dummy and on the restraints monitor
the forces and moments to help determine the impact severity and the
effectiveness of the restraint system in reducing loads transferred to the
occupant.
 The typical full-scale barrier test involves collision of a guided vehicle,
propelled into a barrier at a predetermined initial velocity and angle.
Typically, a barrier test uses a complete vehicle.
To evaluate individual substructures, a sled test can be equally
effective, especially in evaluation of the restraint systems.
 Safety engineers run this barrier test to ensure vehicle structural integrity
and compliance with government-mandated regulations, for example,
United States
Federal Motors Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 208. A fully instrumented
vehicle with numerous load cells, accelerometers and instrumented dummy
(or dummies) in the driver (and passenger) seat(s) impacts a rigid barrier at
zero degrees, plus 30 degrees, and minus 30 degrees, respectively, from an
initial velocity of 13.4 m/s (30 mph).
The barrier face is instrumented with several load cells to monitor the
impact force-time history.
For compliance with FMVSS 208, the unrestrained dummies in the driver
and right front passenger must score injury assessment values below those
established for human injury thresholds for the head, chest,and legs.
In addition, the dummy performance is assessed at a higher impact speed of 35
miles per hour (mph). in what is known as the NCAP (New Car Assessment Program)
test. Typically in the NCAP test, the dummy is restrained by three-point lap/
shoulder belt system, in addition to the supplemental restraint air bag. Vehicle
impact into a rigid barrier provides a method to assess the effectiveness of the
restraint system, as it typically subjects the structure to high deceleration loads.
Another type of testing has emerged over the past few years to evaluate the
structural integrity of the vehicle when subjected to frontal offset impact with 40
to 50 percent overlap. The impact target may be rigid or deformable. In this type of
test the vehicle front structure is subject to more deformations and potential intrusion
and relatively less severe deceleration.
Safety experts conduct similar full-scale tests for side impact, launching a deformable
barrier of a particular mass and stiffness into the left or right side of the
vehicle from some initial speed and crabbed at a certain angle (FMVSS 214). In this
test, side impact dummies (SID For the US and EURO SID1 for Europe) are
used in the driver and outboard rear seat locations.
In addition, full-scale tests are conducted on the vehicle rear structure, either by a
deformable barrier or by a bullet car to assess the integrity of the fuel tank. To
evaluate roof strength according to FMVSS 216, engineers apply a quasi-static
load on the greenhouse, and ensuring that the roof deformation falls below a
certain level for the applied load.
 Crashworthiness Models Requirements

The models should satisfy at a minimum the following overall requirements:

Accuracy the model should be able to yield reasonably accurate
predictions of the essential features being sought
Speed the model should be executable with a reasonable turnaround
time,not to exceed 12 hours regardless of its size, to allow for iterations and
parameter studies
Robustness small variations in model parameters should not yield large
model responses
Development time the model could be built in a reasonably short period
of time, not to exceed two weeks
Design of Vehicle Structures for Crash
Energy Management

Examples are: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) , New

Car
Assessment Program (NCAP) test, Insurance Institute for Highway
Safety (IIHS)tests, compatibility testing, and testing to insure
protection of children and small adult occupants. In other words, a
broader view of vehicles crashworthiness is now needed.
Current Design Practice

Currently, the design process relies on calculating the crash pulse from
either Lumped Mass-Spring (LMS) models or Finite Element (FE) models.
LMS models relied on static crush tests to establish the spring stiffness.
Nonlinear FE models were introduced in the mid-1980s and rapidly gained
acceptance among structural analysts.
Other factors,such as detailed design of components layout and surfaces,
facilitated the development of vehicle models by shell finite elements
since most of the geometry of the structural surfaces was already on
computer graphic files.
In addition to the advancement in computer technology, many
enhancements have been made to the dynamic crash analysis computer
codes
Basic Principles of Designing for Crash Energy
Management
Desired Dummy Performance
Crash energy management means controlling, by design, the dynamic behavior of multiple
systems in a very violent and complex environment of a collision.
The design process of crash energy management must, for obvious reasons, begin with the
biomechanical considerations involving the interaction of the occupants with their restraint
systems in response to a dynamic crash pulse generated in the vehicle by impact.
The logical choice would be to start with the simplest models and progressively increase their
complexity as the design evolves.
Since design for crash energy management requires a system approach, several models would
be constructed in parallel to investigate synergy, if any, between the major modes of frontal
collisions, namely: 31 mph frontal, 35 mph frontal, and 40 mph offset frontal impacts.
At this stage, the desired crush sequence and mode will need to be selected and crush zones
identified to assure that the structural pulse parameter can be realized, that is, the force
amplitude and the maximum crush distance, as determined in occupant model studies.
Also, at this stage in the design process, parametric studies are conducted in conjunction with
other parallel design studies, such as packaging and vehicle dynamics to explore various design
alternatives.
Stiff cage Structural Concept

Designing crashworthy vehicles means providing protection for the occupants in all modes
of survivable collisions. A fundamental concept that helps in achieving this objective is to
design a stiff passenger compartment structure.
This structure would have a peak load capacity to support the energy absorbing members
in front of it, without exhibiting excessive deformation. The compartment structure should
also be an efficient energy absorbing structure that limits the compartment deceleration
and the intrusion during crash.
For front (and rear) structures, the mode of deformation and its efficiency will depend on
the particular design configuration.
Vehicle Crashworthiness and Occupant Protection
The high crush loads, generated while crushing the energy-absorbing structures which
decelerate the occupant compartment, are transferred to it by way of the structural
interface between the energy absorbing and compartment structures.
The manner in which this is accomplished will dictate how well the compartment
withstands these extreme loads and the severity of its deformation. This idea of having the
passenger compartment structure central to the design
 Current front, rear, roof, and side impact energy-absorbing structures deform
upon direct impact in a mixed axial and bending mode, with bending being
the dominant mode of collapse because of its lower energy content.
Therefore,bending is considerably less efficient than the axial mode, and
consequently will result in much heavier designs. In designs where light
weight is desirable, axial mode will be a more appropriate candidate for
energy absorption, provided the question of stability of the crush process can
be resolved within given packaging constraints.
The axial mode will be shown in the subsequent sections to be the most
efficient of all structural collapse modes.
When successfully executed, the primary crush zone will be characterized by
a relatively uniform, progressive structural collapse.
 The secondary crush zone involves the structural interface between
the energy absorbing and occupant compartment structures. This
structural interface must provide a stable platform for the
progressively collapsing energy absorbing structure and transfer the
loads to the occupant compartment, as efficiently as possible.
The general idea, in this case, is to avoid excessive load
concentrations that will make the control of the compartment
intrusion difficult.
The structure topology is very complex in this zone and the prevailing
crash mode will be variations of compound axial/bending modes.
 They are differentiated by their function and/or crush events that occur. As a
design strategy, there will be a soft front zone, designed to reduce the vehicles
aggressivity in pedestrian-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle collisions.
The soft zone will be generally followed by two stiffer zones, which will be
referred to as primary and secondary. The primary zone is composed of the main
energy absorbing structure, in the fore section of the powertrain compartment.
The secondary crush zone involves the structural interface between the absorber
and the compartment. The latter will, generally, extend into the passenger
compartment at the dash panel (firewall) and toe-board areas.
The respective lengths of the structural crush zones, which constitute the total
structural crush, will vary with the location and mounting of the powertrain and
suspension systems and the solid stacking of non-structural components in the
forward/powertrain compartment.
Weight Efficient Energy Absorbing Structures and
Supporting Frame

The definition of structural topology, known also as the architecture of the

structural frame, must be done in conjunction with the packaging studies.
In the case of front and rear end structures, selection of topology will depend on
the ability to design in the crush mode for the primary crush zones for the energy
absorption, that is, folding, bending, or mixed folding and bending.
Simplified modeling of the vehicles front-end system, is a very good technique to
study alternative topologies of the structure in a given vehicle package.
An advantage of this technique is the ability to include the inertial effects of the
major masses such as the powertrain, as well as the 3-D simulation of the shape
and size of the masses and the structural members.
Some elements in building this type of model will be discussed later in this section.
Once a skeleton vehicle structure has been constructed, design loads of structural
members (energy absorbers and support frames) can be determined
 Crash Test Sensors
Sensors in a Crash Test Dummy
In order to acquire information (Data Acquisition) on vehicle safety, a variety of sensors are fitted on
the vehicle crash test dummies. These mainly consist of Accelerometers, Load sensors and Motion
sensors.
Accelerometers : Accelerometers measure how fast a body part moves upon impact. It measures this
in g's. In a real world scenario, if a driver meets with an accident, and his head hits the steering wheel,
head would move very quickly upon impact. But if there had been an airbag, head would move more
slowly because the impact is absorbed. Accelerometers are placed inside the dummy's head, chest,
pelvis, legs and feet. This data can be used to determine the probability of injury.
Load sensors : Transducers that converts an input mechanical force into an electrical output signal. It
measures the amount of force on different body parts during a crash.
Motion sensors : These sensors are fitted in the dummy's chest. They measure how much the chest
deflects during a crash. There is a limit to which the chest could be compressed (2.5 inches) beyond
which the accident can be very fatal.
There are few major assemblies/`parts on the ATD where the sensors are mounted. They are
Head Assembly
Neck Assembly